Paris will ban the use of electric scooters from August 31

Paris will have to say goodbye to electric scooters before the ban officially comes into effect on August 31, requiring all electric scooters to be permanently removed from the streets of Paris.

Electric scooters in France, commonly known as "trottinettes", appeared on the streets of Paris in 2018 as the capital's authorities sought solutions to promote non-polluting street transport.

Not only in Paris, scooters are a popular mode of transportation in other European cities. They are easy to move in heavy traffic conditions and also easy to access attractions, and are environmentally friendly because they run on electricity. But they only have about 1 week left to experience this means of transportation in Paris.

"Since the city voted to keep or scrap electric scooters, we have been trying to convince the authorities that they are environmentally friendly and suitable for traffic-congested Paris. But our efforts have not been successful," said Clement Pette, chief operating officer of Tier.

The main reason Paris decided to ban this vehicle is because of the increasing number of accidents involving electric scooters.

In 2021, 24 people died in accidents involving scooters in France, including one in Paris. In 2022, Paris recorded 459 accidents involving electric scooters and similar vehicles, including three fatalities.

Paris city officials had previously considered banning the city's 15,000 rental electric scooters, citing concerns about public safety on the city's sidewalks.

On March 30, the French government also issued a new regulation, according to which people aged 14 and over are allowed to use electric scooters in this country. At the same time, France will increase the fine for carrying extra people on this type of vehicle from 35 Euros to 135 Euros (about 150 USD).

Official statistics show that up to one in five accidents in Paris involve two people riding an electric scooter.

"The most dangerous thing is when two or three people get on a tram and they wear headphones and even drive in the bus lane. I think a ban is necessary," said Paris taxi driver Samyl.

The e-scooter ban won 89% of the vote, according to the town hall's Twitter account, in a rare "public consultation" that saw long lines at ballot boxes around the city. However, turnout in the referendum was low at 7.46% of registered voters.

Tier, one of the operators of this vehicle in Paris, has been removing 400 electric scooters a day for the past two weeks. The German company said it would provide replacement electric bicycles, with 5,000 available after August 31.

Other cities around the world are also tightening regulations on electric scooters. Montreal, Canada, banned all electric scooters for rental or personal use in 2020, while Copenhagen, Denmark, banned electric scooters in 2020, then reinstated them with stricter regulations.

Minh Hoa (reported according to VTV, Communist Party Central Committee, Tuoi Tre)

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