The for-hire electrical scooters which have change into ubiquitous in Paris and different cities worldwide might be banned within the French capital on September 1.
It’s the greatest metropolis to take away the app-based gadgets that first zoomed onto streets in 2018, however many different cities have taken motion on the automobiles that may encourage love or loathing.
Whereas customers hail them as eco-friendly methods to keep away from gridlock, detractors think about them as an ugly menace with the facility to maim and kill.
Here’s a take a look at the state of play in different cities worldwide:
Paris: the pioneer
The French capital was an early adopter of e-scooters in 2018, when the pavements had been quickly strewn with discarded rental gadgets from the primary operator, Lime.
After an uproar over the anarchy and quite a lot of deadly accidents, town clamped down, decreasing the variety of operators to a few (Dott, Lime and Tier) and the variety of scooters to fifteen,000.
For privately owned scooters, the minimal age for riders is 12 (the federal government needs to boost that to 14), however the Paris rental operators stated final November they might step up enforcement of a minimal age of 18, after metropolis officers warned their licenses had been in jeopardy.
Additionally they should be parked in designated spots and riders are usually not allowed to go over 10 kilometres per hour in most elements of Paris — however many do anyway.
In April, residents voted in a referendum to ban rental scooters, a transfer that won’t impression privately owned gadgets.
Barcelona and Montreal: outright bans
Just a few cities earlier than Paris have taken the identical drastic measures with an outright ban.
Barcelona outlawed rental scooters on public roads in 2018. When the German agency Wind launched an electrical scooter sharing programme within the metropolis that yr, inside hours police eliminated the automobiles from the streets.
Two years later Montreal outlawed all electrical scooters, rental and personal, from circulating on any public roads and cycle paths, complaining that 4 instances out of 5 they had been discarded on the road as a substitute of being parked in designated spots.
However not too long ago town has allowed Chicken Canada to deploy 200 of the automobiles in a park, as a part of a brand new experiment with strict guidelines of use.
Copenhagen: banned then unbanned
Copenhagen additionally banned rental e-scooters in 2020 however introduced them again a yr later, albeit below strict circumstances together with an outright ban on parking within the metropolis centre and the requirement for customers to put on helmets.
London: treading rigorously
Throughout the Channel, London has proven higher warning with regard to gadgets town’s police chief known as “dying traps”.
Solely rental e-scooters with particular security options are allowed within the capital. Privately owned gadgets are unlawful.
Riders should be 18 or over and have a full or provisional driving licence.
The scooters have a pace restrict of 12.5 miles per hour (20 kph) and their lights stay on whereas in use.
Rome: clamping down
After quite a lot of crashes and near-misses involving the two-wheelers, together with one infamous try by two US vacationers to trip down the famed Spanish Steps, Rome vowed to impose order on its booming e-scooter rental market.
On September 1 town will introduce new guidelines to curb utilization, notably within the historic centre the place pace might be restricted to six kph in pedestrian areas and no parking on pavements.
Singapore: stiff penalties
Singapore has among the hardest penalties for reckless scooter riders, with these caught careening alongside sidewalks going through as much as three months in jail and a positive of two,000 Singapore {dollars} (USD 1,500).