Operators of this segment of transportation services have begun to remove electric scooters from the streets of Paris: by September 1, the French capital is to get rid of all 15,000 rental two-wheelers. But you can still ride on private ones.
The three main private operators (Dott, Lime and Tier Mobility), whose fleet of scooters is the largest in the metropolis, have been taking these vehicles outside the city for several days. Last weekend, the microbus service network was operating with half of its rolling stock.
Starting this Monday, large and small rental companies will begin to completely clear the city of two-wheeled vehicles, as electric scooter rentals will be banned in Paris starting Friday.
In early April, an unprecedented vote to preserve the rental service received a categorical “no” from 90 percent of voters. However, this figure can be called true only conditionally, since only 7.46% of the voters registered in the voter lists voted for this decision. However, even these votes were enough, so as of September 1, this segment of services is outlawed here.
The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, who personally supported the vote, is now confident that this decision was correct and notes that “evicting these scooters will reduce the trouble on the streets.”
It’s too early to scrap scooters
The e-scooters withdrawn from the capital’s rental service will still serve in other cities and even countries. Tier’s operations manager in France, Clement Pett, announced the withdrawal this week of another 3,000 scooters from the 5,000 that were in operation here in early August. They will be collected at night and transported by cargo vans to a central warehouse outside the city.
There, the equipment will be inspected, repaired if necessary, serviced, and then sent to other cities. A third of the electric scooters withdrawn from the capital will be used in Ile-de-France, while the rest will be shipped to other countries, mainly Germany.
Dott has practically already withdrawn its scooters from Paris and has already disabled the rental option in its app. The released two-wheelers will be sent to Belgium or Tel Aviv in Israel after service and repair.
Lime is also gradually withdrawing its two-wheelers, repairing and shipping them to Lille, London, Copenhagen and various cities in Germany. Hundreds of scooters are still waiting to pass through the hands of mechanics in a warehouse in an industrial area in Charenton-le-Pont near Paris. Two-thirds of Lime’s fleet has already been assembled.
Scooter operators are planning to switch their Parisian customers to bicycles. As explained by the aforementioned Clement Pett, Tier plans to increase its current fleet to 5,000 bikes, and if demand allows, to 10,000. As for other countries, this electric scooter rental service is not being curtailed.
Europe is not ready for such a step yet
No one can say for sure whether Paris will become an example for other EU capitals and megacities. The monitoring shows that the French capital will be alone in this fiscal initiative for some time, as the e-scooter rental segment is an eco-friendly transport and has gained great popularity.
First and foremost, municipalities in European capitals are focusing on environmental friendliness. A study conducted by Bolt shows that its scooters alone contributed to the avoidance of more than 2.4 million kg of carbon dioxide emissions in 17 European countries last year. This amount is equivalent to 18.5 million disposable plastic bags or 2,600 flights from Paris to New York.
“Our e-scooter rental service helps users move around urban environments for short distances in an environmentally friendly way, which helps reduce traffic congestion, especially during peak hours. According to the World Health Organization, more than 30% of car trips in Europe are less than 3 km, and 50% are up to 5 km. This means that there is significant potential to rethink urban logistics, as our solutions have a positive impact on the community, such as reducing congestion, noise, and pollution,” said Kelin Leusztian, Micromobility Manager at Bolt Romania.
Bucharest, the capital of Romania, is not yet thinking about freeing the streets from rental scooters. Although there is still plenty of work to be done in this area. Green infrastructure projects, especially bicycle and scooter paths, are on the agenda. This should turn European cities into environmentally friendly spaces and improve traffic and, as a result, the lives of city residents. Access to environmentally friendly transportation alternatives will benefit everyone.
The Belgian capital is basically doing the opposite of Paris, where two-wheeled vehicles have been banned. And here are the quiet suburbs bordering Brussels against e-scooters. Local municipalities have recognized the Parisian experience as a good example and are opposed to electric scooters.
The surrounding suburbs of the capital refuse to allow e-scooters on their streets, as this will not improve the integration of mobility with the center of Brussels, where many of their residents work and spend their leisure time.
Smaller local governments are primarily concerned about the haphazard speeding and chaotic parking that accompanies the sharing of micromobility.
In this regard, a statement by the mayor of Zaventem, Ingrid Hollemans, which is home to the Belgian capital’s international airport, went viral. Regarding e-scooters, she simply said: “We don’t want them.”
The reasons for this are serious: according to the VIAS Institute for Road Safety, the number of accidents involving e-scooters has quadrupled in Belgium over the past two years. The unfortunate statistics led local officials to believe that electric scooters would spoil the peaceful life of suburban communities.
Brussels will still partially limit the future use of electric two-wheelers: from 2024, only two operators will be allowed to run a rental business in the Belgian capital. Each of them will have a limited fleet of no more than 4000 scooters.
