Rental electric scooters are a service doomed to disappear in Paris. In a citizen consultation held on Sunday, 89% of voters spoke out against this individual transport service, highly criticized for the chaos it causes on sidewalks and public roads. However, private scooters may continue to be used for now.
The three companies that offer scooter rentals criticized the unusual popular referendum due to the lack of information and the fact that there were few places to vote. Indeed, only 103,084 people participated, 7.45% of the census. However, a spokesperson for the City Council considered the consultation “a success”, for what it implies as an exercise in “democratic innovation” to involve citizens in a matter of daily life.
Although the vote was consultative, the mayoress of Paris, the socialist Anne Hidalgo, promised that she would take into account the popular desire. The contract with the three concessionaire companies -Dott, Lime and Tier Mobility- expires on September 1. In principle it will not be renewed. After knowing the result, Hidalgo was satisfied with “a victory for local democracy”
The companies that provide the service say that 800 jobs are at stake. The City Council, which had criticized the precariousness and conditions of these workers, promised “accompanying” measures to alleviate the situation of people who lose their jobs.
It is evident that the low participation in the consultation has meant that the residents who are most militant against scooters and, therefore, more motivated to express themselves, have been overrepresented in the results.
Electric scooters called “free service” -although they are paid- have flooded the capital for years, as their users leave them lying anywhere. Its use contributes to the anarchy of circulation and the dangerousness of traffic in Paris, where there are also a multitude of barriers due to works.
With the referendum, Hidalgo has tried to ingratiate himself with a sector of the population that is highly critical of his way of governing. The fall in support for him was reflected in a catastrophic result of his candidacy in the last presidential elections, in April of last year. The mayor has lost a lot of popularity in recent years, partly because of her totally hostile policy towards cars, because of the dirtiness of Paris, insecurity and other factors. Hidalgo expressed his solidarity with the recent strike by garbage collectors that caused mountains of uncollected waste. The mayoress considered that the strike, in protest of the pension reform, was fully justified and she blamed the Government, for its intransigence, for the inconvenience caused to the neighbours.
