Faced with the nuisance, the city of Stockholm in Sweden has just put a serious brake on rental scooters in the city.
It will halve the number of electric scooters in circulation.
The total number of self-service scooters will drop from 23,000 to a maximum of 12,000 on January 1.
This measure was voted by a majority combining environmentalist and right.
From 2022, only three rental companies will keep the right to operate scooters.
The names will be announced "in the coming weeks" will be those that have posed the least problems so far, on the basis of objective criteria, said a spokesman for elected environmentalists in Stockholm.
To read also Accidents of electric scooters: "Too many users are not aware of the danger"
Several cities have already started to implement restrictions on these machines touted at startup as one of the city's green mobility solutions for doing what is traditionally called the “last mile”.
Because, according to the public authorities, there are many abuses: uses on prohibited roads, shared transport with several people, the lack of insurance in the event of an accident or even nuisance on the sidewalks with machines left on the ground ...
New York, Singapore ... many cities no longer want it
Copenhagen in Denmark, which had completely banned electric scooters in 2020, decided to reintroduce them but under strict conditions last month. In July, the city of Oslo in Norway had for its part put into force a series of restrictions, including a cap on their number at 8,000 (against 20,000 until then) and the ban on their use between 23 hours at 5:30 am. The city of Singapore has banned the use of these devices which are now registered and restricted to 10 km / h on the sidewalks. For its part, New York has completely banned them.
In France too, self-service rental is carefully scrutinized.
In 2020, the number of users exceeded the 2 million mark with 640,000 units sold, according to the barometer of the Federation of Micromobility Professionals.
Sales are expected to approach the milestone of one million copies sold by the end of 2021.
VIDEO.
Scooters bridled at 10km / h in certain areas of Paris: "It will prevent accidents"
In June, the Paris city hall threatened self-service electric scooters with a ban. "Either there is a significant improvement in the situation and the scooters find their place in the public space without causing disturbance or additional danger, especially for pedestrians, or we are considering the total elimination of self-service electric scooters at expiry of the contract in October 2022, explained David Belliard, deputy Europe Ecology The Greens of the socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo, in particular in charge of transport. And to add that he had "a lot of negative feedback on the scooters which roll on the sidewalks, the feeling of insecurity, the scooters which hang out again in the street".
As of summer 2019, the City of Paris limited the speed of electric scooters to 20 km / h and prohibited their parking on sidewalks.
In addition, the three private operators chosen in July 2020 for a 2-year contract must restrict machinery to a maximum of 10 km / h in areas of high pedestrian density.
