Paris to ban electric scooters from being left on pavements
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has had enough of the thousands of electric scooters being left on pavements around the French capital. She has also announced other measures in a bid to better regulate the vehicles.
The mayor has also ordered a speed limit cut after a worrying rise in the number of accidents involving electric scooters, known as trottinettes electriques in French.
An estimated 20,000 scooters operated by several companies have flooded the French capital since their introduction last year, a number projected to surge to 40,000 by the end of this year.`
In March Paris banned the vehicles from being used on footpaths in a bid to protect pedestrians but now Mayor Anne Hidalgo doesn't even want the vehicles parked on the pavements or in parks for that matter.
A joint decree taken out with the city's police will be published on July 1st to enforce the ban.
This follows complaints from residents who are fed up with the scooters blocking the narrow footpaths. The vehicles, which are often left in groups of fours and fives, regularly topple over and leave streets looking like scrap heaps.
From now on Hidalgo insists the scooters must be parked on roads in designated parking bays reserved for bikes or mopeds. The City Hall also plans to create another 2,500 parking places for the "free floating" vehicles, which will be well marked.
The mayor also wants to reduce the total number of e-scooters in use on the capital's roads as well as the number of rental operators.
She will also order operators to cut the maximum speed the vehicles can travel at.
"I am asking the operators to limit the speed to 20km/h around the city and to 8km/h in pedestrianised streets," said Hidalgo.
The current maximum speed is set at 25km/h although the scooters provided by Uber (Jump) already have a 20/km/h limit.
There has been a huge rise in the number of accidents involving the e-scooters with some riders left with horrific injuries after colliding with cars, motorbikes on pedestrians.
Questions are being asked over whether users need to take out special insurance given that some providers do not include it in the rental scheme.
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The mayor has also ordered a speed limit cut after a worrying rise in the number of accidents involving electric scooters, known as trottinettes electriques in French.
An estimated 20,000 scooters operated by several companies have flooded the French capital since their introduction last year, a number projected to surge to 40,000 by the end of this year.`
In March Paris banned the vehicles from being used on footpaths in a bid to protect pedestrians but now Mayor Anne Hidalgo doesn't even want the vehicles parked on the pavements or in parks for that matter.
A joint decree taken out with the city's police will be published on July 1st to enforce the ban.
This follows complaints from residents who are fed up with the scooters blocking the narrow footpaths. The vehicles, which are often left in groups of fours and fives, regularly topple over and leave streets looking like scrap heaps.
From now on Hidalgo insists the scooters must be parked on roads in designated parking bays reserved for bikes or mopeds. The City Hall also plans to create another 2,500 parking places for the "free floating" vehicles, which will be well marked.
The mayor also wants to reduce the total number of e-scooters in use on the capital's roads as well as the number of rental operators.
She will also order operators to cut the maximum speed the vehicles can travel at.
"I am asking the operators to limit the speed to 20km/h around the city and to 8km/h in pedestrianised streets," said Hidalgo.
The current maximum speed is set at 25km/h although the scooters provided by Uber (Jump) already have a 20/km/h limit.
There has been a huge rise in the number of accidents involving the e-scooters with some riders left with horrific injuries after colliding with cars, motorbikes on pedestrians.
Questions are being asked over whether users need to take out special insurance given that some providers do not include it in the rental scheme.
READ ALSO:
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