Room for vroom? Paris votes on banishing e-scooters

The wheels could also be about to return off Paris’ ubiquitous for-hire electrical scooters.

Zipping across the Metropolis of Mild on one in all them, wind within the hair, or romantically however naughtily e-scooting a deux on one machine when the gendarmes aren’t wanting may quickly be over if Parisians vote Sunday to dispose of the 15,000 opinion-dividing micro-vehicles.

The query Metropolis Corridor is asking in a citywide mini-referendum is: “For or towards self-service scooters in Paris?”

The reply may doom a number one marketplace for the swift two-wheelers which have expanded locomotion selections within the French capital and different city centres and cities all over the world.

Scattered round Paris, straightforward to find and rent with a downloadable app and comparatively low-cost, the scooters are successful with vacationers who love their pace and the help-yourself freedom they provide.

Within the 5 years since their introduction, following within the wake of shared vehicles and shared bicycles, for-hire scooters have additionally constructed a following amongst Parisians who don’t desire or cannot afford their very own however like the choice to flee the Metro and different public transport.

However amid complaints that e-scooters are an eyesore and a site visitors menace, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and a few of her deputies wish to banish the “free floating” flotilla – so referred to as as a result of scooters are picked up and dropped off at their renters’ whim – on security, public nuisance and cost-benefit grounds earlier than the capital hosts the Olympic Video games subsequent yr.

Scooter critics say the machines are notably harmful within the arms of vacationers who do not know find out how to navigate Paris’ frenetic, honk-honk, get-out-of-my-way site visitors and the various customers who flout the foundations and threat fines by using two to a scooter and by mounting footpaths, typically barrelling by pedestrians.

Scooter operators say they transported almost two million individuals within the metropolis final yr and that 71 per cent of Parisian customers are beneath 35. They’ve used social media influencers, a few of them paid, and messages on Fb, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok in a get-out-the-vote drive focusing on that age group.

They’re additionally providing a free round-trip journey Sunday on their scooters or electrical bikes to customers who enter the phrases “Je vote” – I vote in French – into their apps.

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