On the 2nd of April, Parisians cast their vote on whether e-scooters should be banned from the capital. 89.03% voted against the use of e-scooters in the capital. The vote was marked by a weak turnout of less than 7.5% (103, 084 voters).
Mayor Anne Hidalgo herself campaigned against e-scooters, citing the general ‘nuisance’ caused on the streets of the capital.
The ban will come into force on 1st September 2023. The three private e-scooter operators (Lime, Tier and Dott) which, collectively, have deployed 15,000 scooters in the capital, will see their contracts terminated on the 31st of August.
After introducing them in 2018, Paris will become the only European capital to completely ban e-scooters.
The three operators have criticised the low turnout, citing that only a third of their primary customers (18-24 year-olds) had known the vote was occurring. In total, all three companies employ 800 workers in Paris and have highlighted that the vote will ‘have a direct impact on the movement of 400,000 people per month.’
Opponents of e-scooters note their haphazard abandonment in public spaces and the danger posed by poor driving to both pedestrians and those operating the scooter.
In 2022, Paris recorded 408 accidents involving an e-scooter, in which a total of 3 people were killed.
What does this mean for the UK?
Currently, as it stands, e-scooters are illegal in public spaces – yet they are still available to buy and use on public property. In light of this, e-bike engineers, Swytch Technology, comment on the status of e-scooters in the UK.
The British e-bike engineers have gone from selling almost 16,000 conversion kits in 2020, to selling 30,000 in their latest release in September 2022, having introduced the world’s first pocket-sized e-bike battery to the market.
The firm currently has a waitlist of over 700,000 people who’ve registered an interest in their next release.
In a recent press release, the company noted: “mandates that would control factors such as wheel size, battery safety, lights and speed need to be examined in order for the UK to fully grasp the benefits of e-scooters.”
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