14 Jan. () –
The mayoress of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, has announced this Saturday the call for a popular consultation for next April 2 to decide whether or not electric scooter rental companies are allowed to maintain this service.
This simplified referendum will be held at polling stations “based on the electoral roll” and with a specific question: “Shall we continue with self-service scooters or not?”, explained the woman from Cádiz in statements to ‘Le Parisien’.
Hidalgo is in favor of “that we stop”, “but I will respect the vote of the Parisians”, he stressed, since the most recent polls point to a deep division.
In September the City Council warned Lime, Dott and Tier — some 15,000 vehicles in all — that it would not renew their contract, which expires at the end of March.
Against scooters, users who travel in pairs, skip traffic lights or ride on the sidewalk, added to accidents and improperly parked scooters. The person in charge of Mobility of the City Council, David Belliard questions the “cost-benefit ratio” and its “environmental cost”.
Hidalgo has qualified that the debate does not affect private scooters, for which “there is no problem”, but rental scooters, which “is not green” and whose companies “do not properly protect their employees” from the point of view of social view.
According to operator figures, scooter users are rather young, with an average of 33 years old, and local, 85 percent residing in Greater Paris.
