Parisians will be able to decide whether or not to maintain self-service scooters in the capital, during a vote on Sunday April 2, announced PS mayor Anne Hidalgo in an interview with the readers of Parisian aired Saturday.
This simplified referendum will be done “in the polling stations”, “on the basis of electoral files”, and will have to “answer a very simple question: do we continue or not with self-service scooters? “Explained the elected socialist.
The ex-PS presidential candidate is leaning towards “stopping it”. “But I will respect the vote of the Parisians,” she stressed. A recent consultation of Parisians showed that the subject was “very divisive”, according to her.
The ecological invoice in question
At the end of September, the town hall had threatened the three operators Lime, Dott and Tier, which total a fleet of 15,000 vehicles, not to renew their contract. This expires at the end of March.
Between accidents and users traveling in pairs or on the sidewalks, strewn with poorly parked scooters, Paris is wondering about the “cost/benefit ratio” of scooters, as well as their “environmental cost”, had indicated David Belliard, l Assistant for Mobility and Roads.
The debate does not concern private scooters for which there is “no problem”, says Anne Hidalgo. But self-service, or free floating, “is not green” and “the employees of these companies are not properly protected” socially, she argues.
“Soothing our streets and sidewalks”
“It’s cumbersome, it’s dangerous”, adds in a reaction to AFP David Belliard who chose the no camp, to “appease our streets and sidewalks”. “We have too many negative feedbacks,” he summarizes.
To save their place in one of the most visited cities in the world, a very symbolic market, the operators had formulated eleven proposals at the end of November to reinforce the safety of users and pedestrians and better integrate the machines into the public space.
Among these, a license plate to facilitate the verbalization of users who burn out the lights or drive in pairs.
According to figures from operators, scooter users are rather young (33 years old on average) and local (85% residents of Greater Paris).