Cities are a living organism. They grow and expand with the arrival of new residents and the emergence of new activities. The populations of Europe’s major capital cities have increased in recent years. Too many people live in a few square kilometers. This is a recipe for chaos, especially for the circulatory system. However, the emergence of new urban mobility formats has paved the way for a sector that may currently be under threat. Paris, the city of love, took the first step.
Electric scooters are becoming more and more popular. Urban transport has always focused on four main axes: metro, bus, taxi, and car. As we have already said, the expansion of the large European capitals has given rise to the birth of secondary sectors that allow thousands of inhabitants to move around the city without having to use the usual methods, saturated by the lack of public investments and unable to grow at the same time. pace than its users.
In recent years, alternative systems such as carsharing, VTCs, bicycles, and scooters have emerged. Although at first, everything pointed to an underutilized format, the growth figures have shown that personal mobility has grown exponentially rapidly, almost without control. Electric scooters have focused the ire of thousands of Paris residents. The misuse of many users, as well as ineffective legislation, have caused the opposite effect. Thousands of scooters are thrown down the street to prevent or hinder the flow of pedestrians and millions of tourists who visit the city each year.
At the end of last year, the first rumors emerged about a more than likely elimination. The mayor of the capital, Anne Hidalgo, took a few months to think about the future of scooters. In April of this same year, a public referendum made it clear that the city’s inhabitants did not want scooters on their streets. The vote reflected 89% voting in favor of elimination. The month of September has started with the definitive ban on scooter rental services. A study even reflected the frenetic activity of the companies: 15,000 scooters in circulation with an average of 27,000 trips per day.
The reasons for erasing scooter rentals by the minute have not only focused on problems with misuse but also on the safety of all users. In 2021, Paris recorded a total of 247 accidents, mainly due to errors in use, resulting in one death. In 2022, the figure exceeded 350 accidents. Now, everyone is wondering what the next step is. Everything indicates that bicycles will partly occupy the free space of scooters. Companies in the sector have acknowledged their discomfort with the popular measure because they will lose thousands of euros each day.
