Turn of the screw against the idlers of the handlebars in scooters.
The Paris police chief issued an order on Thursday banning the circulation of electric scooters at night on part of the Avenue des Champs-Élysées until July 31, in order to fight against “incivility”.
This measure was taken because of the "multiplication of uncivil individual behavior on the part of road users and by an anarchic occupation of public space by groups of individuals making dangerous use of electric scooters", wrote the police headquarters in a press release.
It is undoubtedly the tragic death, in mid-June, of a 32-year-old Italian woman after being struck by an electric scooter on a pedestrian alley along the Seine that prompted the authorities to toughen up their tone.
However, these real two-wheel races have been commonplace for more than a year as we already revealed a year ago, in July 2020. On videos, we saw groups forming on the wide sidewalks of the Champs-Élysées transformed for the occasion into a real circuit.
VIDEO.
Champs-Élysées: the danger of electric scooter rodeos, under laughing gas
A practice all the more dangerous as the participants in these wild races are most of the time drugged with nitrous oxide, the famous laughing gas whose use the authorities cannot stop.
“Additional” police officers will also be mobilized “in order to increase the number of road checks,” adds the prefecture.
"A bad image of Paris"
According to police officers from the 8th arrondissement, “in the morning we find balloons everywhere.
It starts on Thursday night, but it's clearly hellish on Friday and Saturday nights.
Compared to the summer of 2020, we have gone to the next level.
From now on, these groups have taken up their quarters on the Champs-Élysées so much that they come with their hookahs and sit on the benches and squat them all evening while smoking.
On some evenings, there are a dozen groups of 8 to 15 young people who challenge each other.
There are not enough of us opposite ”.
Police officers who wonder: I do not know how we will be able to enforce this ban ”.
Read alsoSelf-service scooters: the Paris town hall is raising the tone
"These rodeos give a very bad image of Paris, especially for tourists," assures Jeanne d'Hauteserre, mayor of the 8th century. I have signaled for a very long time that something must be done. Scooter rodeos are dangerous. Now, we will have to put in the means to enforce this ban. "
