Electric scooters will be shredded at 10 km / h in Paris

The capital town hall has decided to tighten its policy as early as December to deal with accidents tend to multiply. In addition, the number of companies offering self-service scooters and motorcycles will be limited to two or three.

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Especially not new big bazaar in the Paris streets! In front of the daily friction between cars, pedestrians, bicycles, scooters, motorcycles, scooters, in front of the altercations and accidents that have multiplied since the end of the confines, the town hall of Paris has decided to tighten the rules of the game. Target number one: the Scooter operators and other self-service equipment, which have changed the urban landscape in a few years. Their electric scooters will be bridled at 10 km / h in the essentials of the capital, and a call for competition will be launched to limit to 2 or 3 the number of companies offering scooters and motorcycles, announced Thursday, November 25 David Belliard, the assistant of Anne Hidalgo responsible for transport.

The elected representatives of Paris remember how much anarchy caused by the massive arrival of electric scooters had been reproached for them in 2019. After negotiating a simple charter of good conduct with the operators, the pink-green team. Who runs the capital had finally had to use the strong method. A call for tenders had reduced by 12 to three the number of companies authorized to exploit self-service scooters. In addition, the operators had been asked to bride the speed of their devices, to bring it back from a maximum of 25 km / h to 20 km / h, and even at 8 km / h in certain areas.

“The situation has improved thanks to these measures, notes David Belliard. But it remains unsatisfactory.” Since the beginning of the year, scooters have been involved in 298 accidents, causing two deaths and 329 wounded. At the end of June, the death of a 32-year-old Italian, hit on a pedestrian zone by two women on an electric scooter, sparked the emotion.

Call for tenders

The town hall then asked Dott, Lime and Tier to act, under pain of not renewing their contracts. In pledge of good will, the three operators decided in mid-November to bride the speed of their scooters at 10 km / h in 662 zones of the capital. A solution considered too complex at the Town Hall. “To ensure the safety of users, we prefer that speed is limited in the entirety of Paris,” said David Belliard. Only a few big axes will remain at 20 km / h. The measurement, applauded by the mayors of arrondissements left as right, will apply “from the first half of December”.

Same willingness to appease circulation for scooters and self-service motorcycles. Five operators are already active in this market, with about 4,500 devices in total. But six others want to enter, which could bring the number of companies in competition, says the town hall. To calm the game, a call for tenders will be launched on December 13, and only two or three companies will be retained, in the summer of 2022. Each will not be able to have more than 2,500 scooters at first.

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/Media reports.