Paris votes to banish for-hire e-scooters

A woman votes in a citywide mini-referendum: "For or against self-service scooters in Paris?" Photo / AP

Parisians have overwhelmingly voted to banish the French capital’s ubiquitous for-hire electric scooters from their streets.

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

The question City Hall asked voters in a citywide mini-referendum on Sunday was: “For or against self-service scooters in Paris?”

The result wasn’t close. City Hall said just over 103,000 people voted, with 89 per cent rejecting e-scooters and just 11 per cent supporting them.

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo hailed the consultative referendum as a success and said its outcome was “very clear.”

“There will no longer be any self-service scooters in Paris from September 1st,” she said.

Turnout was very low. The vote had been open to all of Paris’ 1.38 million registered voters.

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.

In the five years since their introduction, following in the wake of shared cars and shared bicycles, for-hire scooters have also built a following among some Parisians who don’t want or can’t afford their own but like the option to escape the Metro and other public transport.

But many Parisians complain that e-scooters are an eyesore and a traffic menace, and the micro-vehicles have been involved in hundreds of accidents, some fatal.

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.