3 ms·

>Still disagree with how it was decided though. It was through a referendum, with something like 90% votes in favour of banning them: https://www.bbc.com/news

• deredede 3y ago
  There are two types of people that will vote in such a referendum: those that use electric scooters (vote to allow) and those that are annoyed by them (vote to forbid). The others don't care enough. If you look at the demographics for people using electric scooters, it contains a lot of: minors, people from the suburbs, train commuters, tourists. None of these were eligible to vote. On the other hand, people annoyed by the scooters are more likely to be older locals, eligible and motivated to vote. I think that's fair, because hey, locals should get to choose what happens in their city. But Paris is such an interconnected city that I understand it leaves a bad taste in the mouth of some.
• orwin 3y ago
  Yes. It was skewed against E-scooter from the beginning. Who use e-scooters? - Students (middle grade to college): half of those can't legally vote, and the other half wasn't eligible to vote. - service workers/vendors: most of Paris is too expensive for them, so like 95% wasn't eligible to vote (not counting visa workers not immigrants, else it would be 99%). - tourists (or 90% remote workers like me) : none are eligible. I think that part is okay actually, even if we bring money to the city, we aren't essential to the city (unlike the first two groups). The referendum was mostly peddled by mail (physical mail) which target especially older people. Like I said, I think the ban might not be a bad thing overall, but this was a travesty. I would rather have hidalgo ban the e-scooters without consultation.
  • jaclaz 3y ago
    Yes, I agree with you, from the little experience I have, these thingies are very often (not in themselves, but due to the way they are driven, everywhere and without respecting any rule) dangerous and a ban might not be a bad thing, but Paris at least made (skewed as it might be) the referendum. In Florence (Italy) the mayor attempted in 2021 to make the helmet mandatory for e-scooters (besides geofencing and limiting them in some zones to 6 km/h), but it was deemed like an excess of power by the relevant court. But, starting probably end of 2023, the helmet will be mandatory in all Italy for both private and shared e-scooters (besides other new rules for parking, a license plate, insurance, lights, turn indicators, use of high visibility vest at night). The renting companies won't have any trouble (besides the costs) to modify the scooters to comply but very likely the need for the helmet will make the whole thing fade away (IMHO). AFAIK the renting companies (some of which already introduced helmets, on a voluntary basis) have a lot of troubles with stolen or damaged ones. Besides, I don't think many people will happily put on their heads helmets used by someone else (without proper cleaning/sanitizing) and/or at the first few (not so improbable) cases of lice or similar there will be some new (sanitary) rules implemented, making sanitizing between rents mandatory. And - even for the private ones - the need for the helmet, registering to get a license plate, adding the lights, etc. and the need for insurance will likely cut down the usage.