Skip to main content

Parisians vote an overwhelming 'non' to e-scooters

Referendum saw 90% wanting free-floating 'trottinettes' banned after 1 September in city
By Adam Hill April 3, 2023 Read time: 2 mins
Paris: the trottinettes are on the way out (© Olrat | Dreamstime.com)

Parisians have voted to ban free-floating rental electric scooters, introduced in 2018, in France's capital.

Around 103,000 people took part in the referendum yesterday - less than 8% of those eligible to vote - with an overwhelming 90% voting in favour of the ban.

City mayor Anne Hidalgo thanked voters, saying: "It's a great victory for local democracy."

She added: "Parisians have spoken out massively against self-service scooters" and Hidalgo pledged to "put an end" to their deployment in the city by 1 September this year.

Lime, Dott and Tier currently operate around 15,000 trottinettes en libre-service in the City of Light and the companies were among five micromobility firms which released 10 recommendations last month for integrating scooters into cities.

Lime had also cited a report on micromobility in Paris before the vote which "shows how much the city may lose".

But the spotlight has fallen on some users' erratic driving of e-scooters, causing several deaths by hitting pedestrians and resulting in many more injuries in collisions.

In addition to safety concerns, there has also been negative feedback over the issue of street clutter, with scooters abandoned on sidewalks.

In a statement, Tier said it was "very disappointed" with the vote, which "goes against the global trend which sees countries and cities around the world embracing low carbon micromobility". 

"Moving away from shared e-scooters also means that Paris is isolating itself from the rest of the world with major capitals like Washington, Madrid, Rome, London, Berlin or Vienna that are all implementing policies supporting e-scooters as ways to reduce unnecessary car usage," the statement continued. 

Tier said it remains available "to work jointly with authorities towards achieving the adoption of a regulatory framework that fosters the uptake of micromobility". 

Scott Shepard of Drover AI tweeted that the issue could have been resolved by "better coordination...smarter regulations... and technologies that improve riding & parking".

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • ULEZ: is it the best way to tackle air quality?
    August 31, 2023
    Issues of equity and economics need to considered in London's ultra-clean air zone expansion
  • Voi suspends Coventry e-scooter service
    September 23, 2020
    Firm will add ID plates and tweak geofencing in UK city after 'anti-social' behaviour
  • Oslo moves to ban city centre traffic
    November 5, 2015
    Cars will be banned from central Oslo by 2019 to help reduce pollution, local politicians said this week, in what they said would be the first comprehensive and permanent ban for a European capital. According to Reuters, the newly elected city council, made up of the Labour Party, the Greens and the Socialist Left, said the plans would benefit all citizens despite shop-owners' fears they will hurt business. "We want to have a car-free centre," Lan Marie Nguyen Berg, lead negotiator for the Green Party
  • Transit in a time of protest
    July 13, 2020
    Street demonstrations at times create tricky balancing acts for public transportation providers - and the recent Black Lives Matter protests have also put a spotlight on the deeper problem of ‘infrastructural racism’…