Accident Prone, Paris Residents Agree On Referendum To Ban Electric Scooters On The Streets Of The Capital City

Illustration of electric scooters. (Wikimedia Commons/Raimond Specking)

JAKARTA - The majority of Parisians chose to ban electric scooters from the streets of the French capital on Sunday, in a non-binding referendum, but the city government said it would follow up.

The ban won between 85.77 percent to 91.77 percent of the vote in 20 Paris districts that published the results, according to the City of Paris website in what is referred to as a rare "public consulting".

"I prefer to ban (scooters), because in Paris this is a mess," a train worker, Ibrahim Beutchoutak (47) told Reuters TV.

"The way the arrangements are, the dangers they cause in Paris, the visual pollution, are not good," he continued.

It is known that cities around the world are tightening regulations on electric scooters, limiting the number of operators and speeds and where they can park.

In 2021, 24 people died in scooter-related accidents in France, including one person in Paris. Last year, Paris recorded 459 accidents involving electric scooters and similar vehicles, including three fatal accidents.

"In my work, we saw a lot of accidents on the highway caused by scooters, so we really saw the negative effects," general practitioner Audrey Cordier, 38, told Reuters, after voting against scooters.

Electric scooters accessed through smartphone applications have been operating in Paris since 2018. However, following complaints about its anarchic spread, Paris in 2020 cut the number of operators to three.

They were given a contract for three years, required to limit scooter speed to 20 km/hour and impose a special scooter parking area. The current contract will last until September.

Operators have offered further regulations, including checking users over the age of 18, installing number plates so that police can identify traffic violators and limit one passenger.

On Sunday, operators like Tier and Lime sent users free voucher codes, to encourage them to choose to oppose the ban.

Some voters say they prefer stricter rules than direct bans.

"I chose (scooters) because I oppose the binary choices given in this referendum. I don't want scooters to do whatever they want on the sidewalk, but banning them is not a priority," said Pierre Waeckerle (35).