Six months on from its landmark vote to ban shared e-scooters, Cities Today spoke with Paris’ Shared Mobility Manager, Natalia Ciciarello, about the impact the decision has had and how the city is now dealing with a cycling boom.
At the end of August 2023, just five years after it became one of the first cities in Europe to open up to free floating shared e-scooters, Paris held a referendum which put an end to the scooter service. During their peak, 15,000 shared e-scooters had roamed the streets but poor parking, user behaviour and concerns over safety prompted complaints. This escalated in 2020 when the city introduced some of the strictest regulations in the world, limiting the number of operators and automatically capping speeds at 20 kmph.
The measures were not enough however, and in April 2023 the city’s mayor, Anne Hidalgo, decided to hold a referendum giving residents a simple yes/no choice around the future of shared e-scooters. Ninety percent voted in favour of a ban but with a turnout of just 7.5 percent.
Safety
While safety fears had been cited as a reason to ban e-scooters, it was more the perception of danger that influenced this, according to Natalia Ciciarello, Shared Mobility Manager, City of Paris. “Statistically, there were not many accidents because of these [shared] e-scooters, but we had a lot of people say to the city that there was a feeling of insecurity around how they were being used, and this was quite important.” Private e-scooters are still allowed in the French capital, with many using the devices on a daily basis for leisure or commuting but Ciciarello noted there were differences between those who had used the shared scooters and those who own one.
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