Roubaix could well be the municipality thanks to which all the inhabitants of the European Metropolis of Lille (MEL) will have the possibility of benefiting from a service of shared electric scooters from 2023. Instigator of a one-year experiment of the ” free floating” of the operator Tier Mobility, Roubaix delivered, on Tuesday, a particularly satisfactory assessment which should remove the reluctance of certain municipalities.
For some town halls, the “free floating” of scooters or bicycles is, sometimes rightly, synonymous with anarchy. In Lille, Martine Aubry had been scalded by the Gobee Bikes fiasco and took measures to discourage other operators. So when Roubaix decided to offer self-service scooters and electric bikes to its inhabitants, a very strict framework was developed. Limited speed of machinery for safety, delimited areas for parking to avoid congestion in public space and arrangements to avoid traffic on the sidewalks. Once these foundations were laid, the operator Tier Mobility deployed, in September 2021, 500 scooters and 100 electric bicycles. “The rapid acceptance and the success of our offer were also a surprise for us”, recognizes François-Xavier Giraud, Tier’s deployment manager in Roubaix.
“We only deplore 5% of damage or theft”
In one year, therefore, 330,000 journeys were made for a total of 650,000 km covered. Each month, approximately 500 people subscribe to the service, representing nearly 30% of journeys. And, unlike the infamous Gobee bikes, the Roubais machines did not all end up in the Deûle: “Over the duration of the experiment, we only deplore 5% of damage or theft”, assures the Tier manager to Roubaix. “When a product pleases, that it is useful, it is not degraded”, welcomes for his part Alexandre Garcin, deputy in charge of mobility in Roubaix.
Nevertheless, the city had announced from the outset that at the end of the experiment, the ball would be in the court of the MEL to decide, or not, to prolong and extend the adventure to the scale of the metropolis. This will be the subject of a deliberation during the next metropolitan council which will take place in December. A priori, the president of the institution, Damien Castelain, is in favor of offering this service to the municipalities, which will however have to apply to host it on their territory.
It costs nothing and it makes money
“Not only does it cost the communities nothing, but it also brings in a little money, the operator having to pay a fee for occupying the public space”, specifies Alexandre Garcin. In Roubaix, this fee is 20 euros per machine and per year, or 12,000 euros for 600 scooters and bicycles. This fee, set by each municipality, should not however be too high according to the mobility assistant: “Some French cities saw it as a way to make money and it was the service that paid for it. “, he assures.
If the deliberation were adopted by the metropolitan council, it would be followed, in early 2023, by a call for tenders. “We are of course ready to respond to it, and we will certainly not be the only ones”, recognizes François-Xavier Giraud. Not sure, therefore, that it is Tier Mobility that takes over the market despite the 5 million invested in the Roubais experiment.