Parisians have voted to ban rental electric scooters from their city streets – a triumph for road safety campaigners tired of rising fatalities linked to the battery-powered devices.
Paris, one of the first cities in the world to adopt rental electric scooters, has become the first city in the world to ban them after a rise in injuries and fatal crashes.
Currently, there around 15,000 e-scooters in Paris that can be picked up using mobile apps and then dumped anywhere, including parks, squares and by the River Seine.
In 2022, there were three deaths and 459 injuries attributed to e-scooters in Paris, up from one fatality and 353 injuries in 2021.
At around 10pm on Sunday, April 2, the Hôtel de Ville confirmed the “non” vote had won with 90% of the vote.
Only 8% of those eligible to vote turned out – possibly due to the referendum being held on the same day as the Paris Marathon, which closed down parts of the city centre for most of the day.
According to official figures, of the 1.38 million people on the city’s electoral register, just over 103,000 took part, with over 91,300 voting against rental e-scooters.
Three companies run the e-scooter rental service in Paris, meaning Lime, Tier and Dott will now have to cease Paris operations in September when their contracts expire.
Electric scooters hired through smartphone apps have operated in Paris since 2018.
