An awesome majority of Parisians who took half in a referendum on rental electrical scooters have voted to ban the gadgets from the streets of the French capital, reflecting exhaustion with a public-transit various that was as soon as seen as handy and climate-friendly however is now largely thought to be harmful and environmentally questionable.
Comparatively few individuals turned out on Sunday for the referendum — solely about 100,000 Parisians voted, lower than 7.5 p.c of these eligible — however those that did solid ballots left little doubt what they needed: Nearly 89 percent backed the ban.
The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, who as soon as backed the enlargement of rental electrical scooters to chop site visitors, led the marketing campaign towards them, describing them as a “nuisance.”
Though the referendum, described as a “public session,” was nonbinding, Ms. Hidalgo, a member of the Socialist Celebration, mentioned that she was “dedicated to respecting the outcomes of the vote.”
With the operators’ contracts expiring on the finish of August, Ms. Hidalgo mentioned, “there will likely be no extra self-service scooters in Paris” come Sept. 1. Privately owned scooters will nonetheless be permitted.
Many different cities, together with Marseille within the south of France, have been intently watching the vote in Paris as they weigh the way forward for rental scooters on their very own streets. Copenhagen and Montreal banned the electrical scooters in 2020, though Copenhagen allowed them to return the following 12 months underneath strict circumstances.
Worldwide consultants say Paris has lengthy been a frontrunner within the evolution of transportation. “Cities that had been already planning or eager about banning scooters will now level to Paris as it’s the largest metropolis but to ban them,” mentioned Sarah M. Kaufman, the interim director of the N.Y.U. Rudin Middle for Transportation.
Paris has been one of many largest markets for rental scooters on the planet, recording about 20 million journeys on 15,000 scooters in 2022. The identical 12 months, although, the nationwide highway security division, Sécurité Routière, mentioned that 34 people had died and 570 others had been severely injured in France whereas using an electrical scooter or comparable mobility machine. The French Nationwide Academy of Drugs referred to as electrical rental scooters a “main well being drawback.”
“We take into account it a victory: Paris is an emblem,” mentioned Arnaud Kielbasa, who arrange an affiliation for victims in 2019 after somebody using a scooter knocked down his spouse, who had been carrying their 7-week-old child woman. The kid was hospitalized with a concussion. Since then, Mr. Kielbasa had been publicly pushing towards the rental operators’ promotion of the scooters as secure, environmentally pleasant and a straightforward mode of public transportation.
“On high of saving individuals from demise and harm, we even have the satisfaction of pushing again the Uberization of our nation,” he mentioned.
In america, cities like Seattle and Portland noticed rental scooter ridership soar through the pandemic, when individuals feared they might catch the coronavirus on trains or buses and opted for outside journey.
“All cities had been caught flat-footed by the rise of micro-mobility,” mentioned Sam Schwartz, a world transportation knowledgeable and former chief engineer for the New York Metropolis Division of Transportation, who mentioned most municipalities are nonetheless struggling to manage scooters.
First arriving in Paris in 2018, the motorized model of the youngsters’s toy had been welcomed by Ms. Hidalgo, in her efforts to make the town extra inexperienced and scale back its congestion.
The subsequent 12 months, 16 corporations had been providing rental scooters in a advertising frenzy that resulted in reckless riders barreling down sidewalks at speeds of as much as 19 miles per hour. Parked scooters had been thrown throughout roadways and into the Seine, and lovers wove precariously by means of site visitors, with two entwined individuals balancing on a platform the scale of a skateboard.
In 2019, a rider was hit by a van and killed, changing into the primary however removed from the final rental scooter fatality within the metropolis.
Afterward, Metropolis Corridor carried out some fundamental guidelines and narrowed the operators to a few — the San Francisco-based firm Lime, the Dutch start-up Dott and the German start-up Tier.
Since then, their environmental worth has additionally come underneath shut scrutiny.
The three corporations pointed to a city-sponsored research that discovered that the gadgets helped scale back air pollution in Paris, as 19 p.c of journeys would have in any other case been made by automobile. However that very same research additionally famous that greater than three-quarters of riders would have traveled utilizing one other low-carbon methodology, like strolling.
As Metropolis Corridor hailed the vote as a “victory for native democracy,” opposition events, together with President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance, denounced what they characterised as a one-sided choice.
Calling the vote a “gigantic democratic fiasco,” Sylvain Maillard, a Renaissance lawmaker within the Nationwide Meeting representing Paris, mentioned Sunday evening on Twitter that he was “pondering of the younger Parisians who’re the large losers on this binary vote organized by a municipality which has determined to pit one era to a different.”
The three scooter rental corporations had been essential that on-line voting — uncommon in France — had not been allowed, arguing that its absence discouraged the participation of youthful voters who had been more than likely to make use of the scooters. Additionally they complained that the geographic boundaries of who might vote, excluding individuals who stay within the suburbs however spend time within the capital, had been too restrictive.
“It’s as if they like site visitors jams over attending to their job on time,” mentioned Aymen Kouachi, a salesman who was selecting up a scooter to depart his office on the Champs-Élysées on Monday. Mr. Kouachi, 22, was among the many few who voted to maintain the rental scooters on Sunday.
“I must discover options, possibly purchase my very own electrical scooter,” he mentioned with resignation.
Earlier than the vote, the businesses working in Paris organized a marketing campaign based on social-media influencers within the metropolis, and provided free rides on the day of the referendum to attempt to mobilize younger voters, their core buyer base.
After spending the sunny afternoon cruising up and down the Champs-Élysées on a rented electrical scooter, Dominik Metz, 41, struggled to discover a place to park. Unaware of Sunday’s referendum, the German vacationer mentioned the information didn’t rattle him. “Subsequent time I’ll simply stroll or take the subway,” he mentioned. “It’s actually no huge deal.”
Catherine Porter contributed reporting.