Ever since the first dockless e-scooter hire scheme was launched in Singapore in 2016, the app-driven eco-friendly mode of travel has spread around the world, proving particularly popular in cities such as Bristol, where alternative modes of travel are limited or inaccessible. While the global trend has been toward more e-scooters, as Bristolians well know, the use of such schemes has not been without controversy.
It now seems that one of the European early adopters of the rental e-scooters has now fallen out of more with the technology, as this week Parisians voted overwhelmingly to banish for-hire e-scooters from the streets of the French capital in a mini-referendum that the capital's mayor said sent a “very clear message”.
Approximately 15,000 e-scooters could now vanish from central Paris at the end of August when the city’s contracts with the three operators expire.
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The question that City Hall asked voters in its citywide mini-referendum on Sunday was: “For or against self-service scooters in Paris?” and the result was not close. City Hall said on its website about 103,000 people voted, with 89% rejecting e-scooters and just 11% supporting them.
Turnout, however, was very low, with the vote open to all of Paris’ 1.38 million registered voters, meaning just 7.46% of the population voted.
Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo hailed the vote as a success and repeated her vow to respect the outcome of the consultative referendum. The voters’ “very clear message now becomes our guide”, she said. “With my team, we’ll follow up on their decision as I had pledged.”
Scattered around Paris, easy to locate and hire with a downloadable app and relatively cheap, the scooters are a hit with tourists who love their speed and the help-yourself freedom they offer.
In the five years since their introduction, following in the wake of shared cars and shared bicycles, for-hire scooters have also built a following among some Parisians who do not want or cannot afford their own but like the option to escape the Metro and other public transport.
But many Parisians complain that e-scooters are an eyesore and a traffic menace, and the micro-vehicles have been involved in hundreds of accidents.
Ms Hidalgo and some of her deputies campaigned to banish the “free-floating” rental flotilla — so-called because scooters are picked up and dropped off around town at their renters’ whim — on safety, public nuisance and environmental cost-benefit grounds before the capital hosts the Olympic Games next year.
Bristolians will be familiar with many of the complaints levelled against the scooter schemes in Paris. The e-scooter rental trial in Bristol and South Gloucestershire is the most popular of the 31 trial areas across the country, with more than 7.3 million rides or 19 million kilometres of travel since the scheme began in October 2020.
Voi has managed Bristol’s rental scheme since its launch, but it was recently announced that a new operator might take over the contract in the West of England.
Voi has responded to safety concerns in the past. In a statement shared with Bristol Live in June 2022, Matthew Pencharz, Voi’s Head of Public Policy for the UK and Ireland, said: “When it comes to safety, shared e-scooter schemes are strictly regulated and riding a shared e-scooter is as safe as riding a bike. Voi’s top priority is the safety of its riders, other road users and pedestrians, particularly vulnerable ones.
"We continuously educate our riders to follow the rules of the road and ride safely. Voi, which is part of the highly-regulated government e-scooters trials, works closely with its city partners to ensure this sustainable mode of transport is introduced safely and responsibly."
"Nearly 4.8 million rides have been taken on Voi e-scooters in Bristol since the launch of the trials in 2020, and we have seen a 37% modal shift from cars to e-scooters, representing an estimated 1.8 million short car trips replaced. This shows that shared schemes are contributing to the decarbonisation of our cities and towns and that e-scooters can be safely integrated with other forms of public transport, bicycles and walking to give people carbon-free, safe, affordable and convenient transport options.
“Voi also welcomes the recently announced government plan to create a new independent vehicle category and legalise e-scooters in the UK. We believe that cooperation between cities, central government and operators, investment in the education of all road users, better parking and riding infrastructure, as well as the creation of a level playing field between private and shared e-scooters, will increase overall road safety.”
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