Electric Rental Scooters to be Banned in Paris After Referendum

Calling the vote a “gigantic democratic fiasco,” Sylvain Maillard, a Renaissance lawmaker in the National Assembly representing Paris, said Sunday night on Twitter that he was “thinking of the young Parisians who are the big losers in this binary vote organized by a municipality which has decided to pit one generation to another.”

The three scooter rental companies were critical that online voting — rare in France — had not been allowed, arguing that its absence discouraged the participation of younger voters who were most likely to use the scooters. They also complained that the geographic boundaries of who could vote, excluding people who live in the suburbs but spend time in the capital, were too restrictive.

“It’s as if they prefer traffic jams over getting to their job on time,” said Aymen Kouachi, a salesman who was picking up a scooter to leave his workplace on the Champs-Élysées on Monday. Mr. Kouachi, 22, was among the few who voted to keep the rental scooters on Sunday.

“I will have to find solutions, maybe buy my own electric scooter,” he said with resignation.

Before the vote, the companies operating in Paris organized a marketing campaign based on social-media influencers in the city, and offered free rides on the day of the referendum to try to mobilize young voters, their core customer base.

After spending the sunny afternoon cruising up and down the Champs-Élysées on a rented electric scooter, Dominik Metz, 41, struggled to find a place to park. Unaware of Sunday’s referendum, the German tourist said the news didn’t rattle him. “Next time I’ll just walk or take the subway,” he said. “It’s really no big deal.”

Catherine Porter contributed reporting.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/03/world/europe/paris-electric-scooters-ban.html