Parisians voted overwhelmingly to remove e-scooters from their streets

“There will be no scooters in Paris on September 1… a victory for local democracy,” Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo told RMC

There will be no scooters in Paris on September 1. … This is a victory for local democracy,” Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said at a press conference over the weekend.

The 15,000 opinion-dividing mini-machines could now vanish from central Paris at the end of August when the city’s contracts with the three operators expire.

Scattered around Paris, easy to locate and hire with a downloadable app and relatively cheap, the scooters are a hit with tourists who love their speed and the help-yourself freedom they offer.

Hidalgo and some of her deputies campaigned to banish the “free floating” rental flotilla — so called because scooters are picked up and dropped off around town at their renters’ whim — on safety, public nuisance and environmental cost-benefit grounds before the capital hosts the Olympic Games next year.

The turnout was very low and only 7.41% of registered voters cast their votes in one of the 203 polling stations.

At the end of the month, the city will have a ban on scooters. Private owners of e-scooters won’t be affected.

800 employees of Dott are the real consequence of our 400,000 monthly users. Then it’s also for the residents since, mathematically speaking, if we subtract the scooters, it’s more saturation in public transport and more individual vehicles,” Nicolas Gorse, chief business officer of scooter operator Dott, told RMC radio on Monday morning.

Between mid-2012 and mid-2022, the most recent year for which data is available, there was a 33% drop in traffic on Paris’ roads, according to the city hall.

Paris police do not collect figures for injuries and deaths caused specifically by e-scooters. However, between 2021 and 2022, the number of crashes involving “motorized personal transport devices” – which includes e-scooters, gyropods and motorized skateboards – rose by nearly a third, to 516 accidents, resulting in three deaths, police said.