The mayor of Paris is giving self-service scooter operators a maximum of one month to find solutions to limit dangerous uses and street congestion, the two parties said on Thursday.
"
All the options are on the table, including that of stopping the agreement
" when the contract expires in February 2023, David Belliard, the mobility and roads assistant, told AFP at the end. a meeting with the three operators at the Town Hall.
David Belliard and Emmanuel Grégoire, the town planning assistant, “
asked the operators to come back within a month with proposals for innovation and service development on the occupation of public space and security
summed up a Lime spokesperson.
According to this spokesperson, the town hall also asked operators to "
do education around the positive ecological impact of scooters
", their environmental record being criticized.
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Like its competitor, Tier says it is "
very confident in (its) ability to meet
" the requirements of the town hall, a spokeswoman told AFP.
Serious and sometimes fatal accidents, users traveling in pairs and/or on the sidewalks, strewn with poorly parked scooters: given the "
misuse
", the town hall "
questions
" the "
cost-benefit ratio
" of scooters, as well as the their "
environmental cost
", confirmed David Belliard.
Especially since this market brings in the city “
less than one million euros
” per year (907,000 euros), indicates the elected ecologist.
A quarter of Parisians say they regularly use a scooter, according to a survey published Wednesday by Bolt, while the three operators point out that this sector represents 800 jobs in Paris.
In 2018, a dozen companies had invaded the capital with their self-service scooters, but the excesses led the City to limit the market to three platforms (Lime, Dott and Tier) and 15,000 vehicles in 2020. Scooters must now be parked in dedicated places, their speed is limited to 20 km/h everywhere, and 10 km/h in 700 dense areas.
According to figures provided by the police headquarters to AFP, personal motorized transport devices (EDPM), i.e. scooters, Segways, hoverboards or monowheels, caused 236 accidents in Paris in the first half, an increase of 52. % compared to 2021. In France, 24 people died in 2021 using EDPMs, a record.
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