The people of Paris have voted to ban rental e-scooters in their city, following a referendum at the weekend.
Official results show nearly 90% of the votes cast on Sunday were in favour of the ban, which was called for by the city’s mayor, Anne Hidalgo.
However, just 8% of those eligible turned out to vote.
Of the 1.38 million people on Paris’ electoral register, just over 103,000 took part, according to official figures. Of these, more than 91,300 voted against the scooters.
Privately-owned vehicles were not part of the vote.
Paris was one of the first cities to adopt e-scooters. However, as with schemes in the UK, they have proven to be controversial – for all the same arguments.
As reported by BBC News, critics have expressed growing concerns with the way some people were driving the scooters – ‘weaving through traffic, dodging pedestrians on pavements, and getting up to speeds of 17mph’.
It is also reported that riders often did not wear helmets and children as young as 12 could legally hire the e-scooters, while there was criticism that groups of parked e-scooters were cluttering pavements.
But operators of the e-scooters argued the vehicles made up a small proportion of overall traffic accidents in the city.
Placing her vote, Anne Hidalgo said: “I’m committed to respecting the choice of voters, purely and simply.
“It’s very expensive – five euros (£4.40; $5.40) for 10 minutes – it’s not very sustainable, and above all, it’s the cause of a lot of accidents.”
The three main operators in Paris – Lime, Dott and Tier – used social media to urge people to vote in their favour. They also offered free rides all day on Sunday.
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