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Delivery scooters: noise, pollution ... how to contain nuisances in Ile-de-France?

2021-04-12T05:23:03.923Z


Everywhere in the Parisian suburbs, cities are putting pressure on platforms, such as Uber or Deliveroo, to limit pollution by


It is a phenomenon that was born long before the Covid-19, but which has clearly amplified with the health crisis, at the rate of confinements and curfews.

More and more delivery vehicles are invading city roads and sidewalks, with remote control having been a boon for many restaurant owners over the past year.

"Delivery has certainly played an essential role in the survival of the sector this year", underlines the management of Deliveroo.

But it has also created new nuisances.

From last summer, for example, a group of residents organized themselves in Saint-Ouen (Seine-Saint-Denis), to combat the noise of scooters making their way back and forth at the foot of their apartments on rue Palouzié.

In 2018, Deliveroo opened a shared kitchen site there, near the city center.

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Meal delivery: how the Covid-19 crisis boosted the sector

After having commissioned agents to measure the noise in the housing located around this "dark

kitchen ”

,

the municipality (PS) drew up a report to the company with the injunction to find solutions to reduce noise disturbance.

This has been done since January: no more scooters can now enter the site to collect orders, with the exception of electric vehicles and bicycles.

At the same time, parking spaces have been created by the city at the end of the street, to force these delivery men to park there, and to come and collect orders on foot.

The residents are fed up

Except that the measure only shifted the problem to other residents: those living above this parking lot, and who in turn decided to launch a petition.

"We have observed the deterioration of our living conditions," write the inhabitants of 2, rue Emile-Zola.

The car park has only 11 spaces whereas there are sometimes 50 delivery people, who park and drive everywhere, on the sidewalks, in front of the nursery… ”They mention a“ scooter departure every ten seconds ”during rush hour, and “the inability to open the windows”, due to noise and pollution.

New discussions have therefore been initiated between the city, Deliveroo and residents.

“The first measure solved part of the problem, underlines the elected representative of the district, Clément Praud.

But we warned: this is an experiment, with a monitoring committee that will allow us to adapt our solutions.

We are going to receive the residents again, but we have already reacted by doubling the parking spaces for delivery people and Deliveroo has also mobilized an additional security guard to come and stand at the entrance to the street, where the scooters are parked.

"

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In Seine-Saint-Denis, Saint-Ouen is not an isolated case and the phenomenon is not limited to the area around shared kitchen sites.

In Pantin, the municipality (PS) was also arrested by residents embarrassed by groups.

What about these @deliveroo delivery people from #rueHoche in front of McDonald's in Pantin?

They respect neither pedestrians, nor the tranquility of residents!

@BrunoCarrere @mat_monot @MathieuHanotin @StephanTroussel @ fmolossi93 @AliceNicollet @GeoffreyCarva @ruiwangfrance @LachaudB pic.twitter.com/jLKb6tMrHN

- Collectif de la rue Hoche (@GavrHoche) April 4, 2021

“There is the McDonald's on rue Hoche, and a little further, all the scooters are waiting to go deliver, observes the mayor (PS), Bertrand Kern.

And during this wait, they sometimes take up all the public space.

We assign our mediators to ask them not to stay in the middle, to park better, to leave room for strollers ... "The councilor hopes that at the end of the crisis," there will be a little less tension and that it will be diluted in the daily life of the people.

But we'll check it out at that time.

"

At Deliveroo, it is estimated that the current restrictions for customers, coupled with the ban on deliveries after 9:30 p.m. in Paris and the inner suburbs, have created a "funnel effect, with a volume of orders also higher", notes Gabriel Diaz, responsible for the shared kitchen sites Deliveroo Editions, who believes that the situation will calm down when life returns to normal.

"This phenomenon will not disappear, but it must be supervised"

In Montreuil, the municipality (PCF) was also contacted by many residents on this subject.

"They ask us for parking scooters on the sidewalks, noise, pollution under the windows, non-compliance with the Highway Code and in particular in pedestrian areas, which creates danger", explains Olivier Stern , assistant (PS) in charge of parking.

To better regulate this occupation of public space, the city is increasing its meetings with platforms.

"This phenomenon will not disappear, but it must be supervised", continues the elected, who does not say he is opposed to the activity.

“But it should not be done without any rule of good cohabitation with local residents.

The city is therefore working on setting up areas where delivery people could park and wait for their orders, a little further from homes.

And others, where, on the contrary, the city does not want groupings to be made at the foot of a building, and where the platforms would not allow delivery people to receive orders via their application.

“Close work is taking place,” continues Olivier Stern.

The goal is to create spaces so that groupings disturb as little as possible, with scooters with the engine off.

»Improvements that could be carried out by the city of Montreuil, which would like to request, in return, a license fee for the platforms.

Nantes, the scarecrow of platforms

It is the first city to have taken such a radical decision: on March 8, the city of Nantes (Loire-Atlantique) issued a decree to prohibit all non-electric scooters from circulating in its city center, where the there was almost one vehicle per minute in pedestrian streets.

“And for the past month, every time we contact a platform, the first thing it asks us is:

Do you plan to do like Nantes?

We can see that it stresses them a little, “blows Olivier Stern, assistant (PS) in the parking lot in Montreuil.

The platforms we contacted also replied that they “did not want to come up” to such measures.

And want to put these difficulties into perspective.

Uber Eats speaks of "rare cases that can generate frustrations locally".

“In the vast majority of municipalities, things are going very well,” says Deliveroo.

"A decision taken to the detriment of delivery men and traders"

"We are actively discussing with the local communities where we are established," continues the management of Deliveroo.

What happened in Saint-Ouen is an example of a consultation that works well.

This is not what happened in Nantes and we have seen it: this decision was taken to the detriment of delivery men and traders.

"

The two companies are primarily focused on raising the awareness of their delivery personnel.

In Saint-Ouen, young mediators were assigned to ease tensions around the Deliveroo site.

"When we are informed of an embarrassment due to the presence of delivery people parked between two races, we send a message by email and SMS to the delivery men reminding them of the need to respect public tranquility", adds Uber Eats .

The company also says it works with several municipalities in the Paris region, such as Courbevoie and Neuilly-sur-Seine (Hauts-de-Seine) or Chilly-Mazarin (Essonne), to better regulate parking.

Unlike Deliveroo, it has a device allowing certain areas to be grayed out, which forces deliverers to be positioned at a specific location to collect their orders.

In Courbevoie, Uber says it has identified a place "far enough from homes to respect the tranquility of the neighborhood, while remaining close to restaurants to ensure (...) the continuation of home delivery activities.

The area selected by the city services is located at the foot of an office building with a shelter, useful for rainy days.

Regarding noise and pollution, Deliveroo says it is working on “the electrification of the fleet” of its 14,000 delivery people.

"But is faced with the same difficulties as car manufacturers when they launched a few years ago, with brakes related to cost and fears about autonomy", observes the company, which offers subsidies to its delivery men to equip themselves, via long-term rentals, the purchase of electric vehicles or the electrification of their bicycles.

Source: leparis

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