![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/paris-says-au-revoir-to-rental-e-scooters/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/130957835_7a82a5a66f40b43285aaec106e72d6dec4a20e36.jpg&description=Image source, Reuters Image caption, Parisians in April voted to ban rental e-scooters but turnout was low A ban on rental electric scooters has come into effect in Paris in response to a rising number of people being injured and killed in the French capital. Almost 90% of those who took part in April's vote over the issue were in favour of the ban - but fewer than 8% of those eligible turned out to vote. Paris is now one of the first capitals to have outlawed the rented electric vehicles, just five years after being one of the first to adopt them. But is the ban simply an example of democracy in action, or are more cynical forces at play? It's not that I'm taking sides. As a cyclist of the traditional variety, I am more than a little peeved by the way electric "personal vehicles" like e-scooters are crowding out our space. Forty years campaigning for cycle paths, only to be squeezed to the side by a new kind of motorised transport - that gets one's goat. Nor do I take kindly to what - as a father of young children - I have in recent years witnessed all too regularly: scooters powering down the pavement and requiring urgent avoidance. A good friend of mine broke a rib when he was knocked over by an e-scooter in Paris. This was last year, and it still hurts when he coughs. No, I have no love for the free-floating vehicle. If I had my way, they would never have been invented, and today the population would be biking around the streets of Paris like it was Amsterdam in the '70s - using legs, not fingers on a button. But that does not mean I can't see a stitch-up when it's staring me in the face. The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, is a member of the Socialist party. That great institution once provided presidents for France, such as François Mitterrand and François Hollande. But in last year's presidential election, when Ms Hidalgo stood as the Socialist candidate, she got 1.75% of the national vote. It was pitiful. Nothing if not dogged, Ms Hidalgo believes political hi){kind=link}
A ban on rental electric scooters has come into effect in Paris in response to a rising number of people being injured and killed in the French capital.
Almost 90% of those who took part in April’s vote over the issue were in favour of the ban – but fewer than 8% of those eligible turned out to vote.
Paris is now one of the first capitals to have outlawed the rented electric vehicles, just five years after being one of the first to adopt them.
But is the ban simply an example of democracy in action, or are more cynical forces at play?
It’s not that I’m taking sides. As a cyclist of the traditional variety, I am more than a little peeved by the way electric “personal vehicles” like e-scooters are crowding out our space.