Should self-service scooters be abolished in Paris?

An electric scooter parked diagonally in the middle of a sidewalk: this image has become one of the symbols of the anger of the population against these self-service machines. A feeling that has persisted since 2018, the year of arrival of these multicolored vehicles operated by the companies Lime, Dott, Tier, Voi or Bird, among others.

The subject is so divisive that the town hall of Paris is organizing a citizens’ vote on April 2 inviting Parisians to express their views. “for or against self-service scooters”. In an interview with newspaper readers The Parisianon January 14, Anne Hidalgo declared that she wished “stop” their availability in the capital. They are accused, among other things, of being dangerous and harmful to the environment.

For their part, the operators of this mode of transport praise its ecological qualities. So, five years after the arrival of self-service electric scooters, what can we really say about their impact on safety and the environment?

SOURCES:

“2022 road safety report”National Interministerial Road Safety Observatory, 2023.

“Uses and users of free-floating electric scooters in France”6t-research office, 2019.

“Consequential LCA for territorial and multimodal transportation policies: method and application to the free-floating e-scooter disruption in Paris”, Journal of Cleaner ProductionAnne de Bortoli and Zoi Christoforou, 2020.

“Micromobility and the environment: to share or not to share?” »Anne de Bortoli, 2021.