Paris bans rental electric scooters

Parisians have voted to ban rental electric scooters in their city. Of the 1.3 million people on the city’s electoral register, just over 103,000 took part.

Almost 90% of votes cast favoured a ban on the battery-powered devices. Paris was a pioneer when it first adopted the e-scooters in 2018 but as their popularity increased rapidly so too did the number of accidents.

In 2022 alone three people died and 459 people were injured in e-scooter accidents in Paris.

It is estimated that there are almost 15,000 e-scooters across the city, operated by rental companies. Public concerns included how users weaved through traffic, regularly drove on pavements, riders not wearing helmets and children as young as 12 could legally hire the scooters. The vehicles are often haphazardly parked and dumped scooters have become a significant problem.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo called the referendum, where voters could say if they were for or against free-floating e-scooters. Privately-owned vehicles were not part of the vote.

“Paris is going against the current,” Hadi Karam, the general manager for France at California-based rental company Lime, told AFP, citing decisions to increase the number of e-scooters or extend contracts in Washington, Madrid and London.

Irish Minister for Transport Eamon Ryan has been preparing to regulate the used of e-scooters since the start of the year. The current situation is problematic, as under the 1961 Road traffic act, e-scooters would be classified as ‘mechanically propelled vehicles’. This would mean you would need insurance, road tax and a driving licence to use them in a public place.

This raises a number of challenges not least the fact there is currently no Insurance market for e-scooters. The minister is thought to be looking at reclassifying the e-scooter devices as “powered personal transporters”. The users would be treated much as a cyclist, once the

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John speed of the scooter is under 25 kph. If this legislation is passed users of e-scooters would not require insurance, road tax or a driving licence to operate the devices in a public place.

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