A group of elected Republicans has tabled a bill to impose registration for motor vehicles traveling at more than 15 km / h, including electric scooters in particular. Objective: to identify law breakers.
Senators, led by Dominique Estrosi Sassone and mostly affiliated with the Les Républicains party, tabled a bill “aimed at establishing registration for all motorized land vehicles whose speed reaches 15 km/h by engine power alone”. A large part of scooters and electric unicycles would therefore be concerned. But not electrically assisted bicycles whose engines do not allow such a speed, and are already regulated by law. At present, only motorized personal transport vehicles (EDPM) and electric bicycles whose speed exceeds 25 km/h are subject to a registration obligation.
For several years now, legislators and political decision-makers have been trying to regulate the use of electric scooters, whether self-service or personal vehicles. The press release published on the Senate website presents this measure as a way to more easily identify the perpetrators of offences. This would allow, according to parliamentarians, to file a complaint and to be compensated by insurance, even in the event of a hit and run. An argument which is based, in particular, on the figures for 2021 showing 870 personal accidents and 22 deaths involving electric scooters. The senators are careful not to detail how many of these accidents were caused by the driver of the scooter involved.
Repression rather than training
The text accompanying the proposal also notifies that “in other countries, in particular in Germany or Switzerland, the choice has been made to register EDPMs or NVEIs (electric bicycles and electric scooters) in order to secure their practice but also the whole users who can now identify them, facilitating procedures.” We have found no trace of such a decision, either in Germany or in Switzerland. Our German neighbors however require specific insurance, with a sticker to be affixed to the machine. In addition, Germany and Switzerland have established a stricter policy than ours in terms of maximum speed, which must not exceed 20 km/h by construction, against 25 km/h in France.
Beyond the approximations on the facts, the bill does not really seem to solve the problem. Strangely, the text of senators LR points “feedback [qui] highlighted a lack of knowledge of the rules by users”. The rules governing the use of electric scooters are not always well known, any more than the highway code. The growing use of personal means of transport that do not require a specific permit is more problematic than the lack of registration of these vehicles. No doubt it would be more appropriate to require further training in the highway code than that which makes it possible to obtain the school road safety certificate – which remains largely theoretical – as well as a few hours of practice in the field.