Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

france24.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 571 posts

Re: Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

#121

Post by conradfr »

twelve40 wrote: post #56
Raed667 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blue Vélib’(electric) are a staple of Parisian (and many other cities) transportation system. https://www.velib-metropole.fr/en/service

So this website says 14 years is the minimum age. Honest question, how is a 14-year-old safer in Parisian traffic on an e-bike than a scooter? You can easily go on sidewalks with bikes, too, if you are so inclined, and falling off into the traffic or hitting someone doesn't seem any less problematic?

I live in Paris and my observation is that 14yo don't use the e-bikes (or the cheaper non-electric bikes) as much. It's probably just less fun and also one criticism is that they use it in pairs (well look at the photo in the article) which I guess is less ideal with bikes in a urban settings.

Twitter is all about how it's old people who went and voted (7% turnout). Well, their loss.

Personally I didn't have an opinion so I didn't vote :)

Re: Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

#122

Post by deanc »

twelve40 wrote: post #56
Raed667 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blue Vélib’(electric) are a staple of Parisian (and many other cities) transportation system. https://www.velib-metropole.fr/en/service

So this website says 14 years is the minimum age. Honest question, how is a 14-year-old safer in Parisian traffic on an e-bike than a scooter? You can easily go on sidewalks with bikes, too, if you are so inclined, and falling off into the traffic or hitting someone doesn't seem any less problematic?

The weight distribution in a scooter is all at the base. People have life changing foot and shin injuries from being impacted. People usually don’t cycle as quick consistently through cities, pressing a button on a scooter gets you to over 20km/h in moments.

Re: Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

#123

Post by forgetfreeman »

arijun wrote: post #47

I would like to provide a contrasting viewpoint. I can’t speak to the situation in Paris, but in the city I live in, scooters are amazing. They reduce car usage which is better for both pedestrians and car users. They turn a 45 minute walk/30 minute bus ride/20 minute cab into a 10-15 minute trip, which opens up much more of the city (the city I live in was not built for the number of cars it has in it so getting any…

Here rental scooters are an absolute plague. Their riders routinely ignore both traffic laws and common sense and are a threat to both themselves and pedestrians. There's talk of some form of crackdown amongst the local city council members and I would be delighted to see them banned outright.

Re: Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

#124

Post by danmur »

meghan_rain wrote: post #84
rhaway84773 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real problem with scooters is cuties unwilling to provide them with proper infrastructure. Bike lanes in most cities (out of the better European cycling cities), tend to be narrow and about 1/4 - 1/3 the size of a car lane. If a city were to dedicate a single car lane sized lane for “micromobility” and responded quickly to damage to this lane (which wouldn’t be as frequent for the obvious reason that damage is pr…

cuties ^_^

They get away with it because they're cute damn them

Re: Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

#125

Post by HWR_14 »

arijun wrote: post #47

I would like to provide a contrasting viewpoint. I can’t speak to the situation in Paris, but in the city I live in, scooters are amazing. They reduce car usage which is better for both pedestrians and car users. They turn a 45 minute walk/30 minute bus ride/20 minute cab into a 10-15 minute trip, which opens up much more of the city (the city I live in was not built for the number of cars it has in it so getting any…

No one is contending that using scooters is bad for the user. They are saying a bunch of drunk users are using them recklessly for non-users and are getting in people's way by parking them all over the sidewalks and streets.

An aggressive ticketing campaign isn't very helpful in a city with a lot of tourists, because they'll just go home without having paid the ticket. Is Interpol going to seek out 30 euros?

Re: Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

#127

Post by twelve40 »

londons_explore wrote: post #72
twelve40 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Friction is what prevents people using these things No, in this case it's the outright city ban that prevents people from using them. > The scooter companies should Lime and dozens of others have been around for about 6 years by now, they are doing just fine* and they can probably figure out the promos if they manage not to get banned? * https://www.li.me/blog/lime-becomes-the-first-shared-electri...

But they're not doing just fine.... They have captured under 1% of the short journey market...

it's going to be even less if they get blanket-bans from cities, so what is your point? that they should give away 5 minutes of their time for free as a promo illegaly, against the new blanket ban law in Paris and become wildly successful that way?

Re: Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

#128

Post by klodolph »

ouid wrote: post #114
rhaway84773 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real problem with scooters is cuties unwilling to provide them with proper infrastructure. Bike lanes in most cities (out of the better European cycling cities), tend to be narrow and about 1/4 - 1/3 the size of a car lane. If a city were to dedicate a single car lane sized lane for “micromobility” and responded quickly to damage to this lane (which wouldn’t be as frequent for the obvious reason that damage is pr…

You can't add a lane for every "new" mode of transportation...

It sounds like the parent comment is talking about expanding & improving bike lanes, rather than forcing electric scooters into car lanes (where they are at risk), undersized bike lanes (where they endanger bicyclists), or banning them outright (where you’re now stuck with more demand for car traffic).

Re: Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

#129

Post by petre »

p0w3n3d wrote: post #126

Now Paris needs to ban electric vehicles. The same story. They started it, the will ban it. After a few building will be burnt beyond repair, of course

Why not just ban parking them in underground garages instead? Some LPG powered cars do have such a restriction in some EU states. Gas powered vehicles catch fire and burn as well. I've seen countless burning cars during the last heatwave.

Re: Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

#130

Post by twelve40 »

deanc wrote: post #122
twelve40 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So this website says 14 years is the minimum age. Honest question, how is a 14-year-old safer in Parisian traffic on an e-bike than a scooter? You can easily go on sidewalks with bikes, too, if you are so inclined, and falling off into the traffic or hitting someone doesn't seem any less problematic?

The weight distribution in a scooter is all at the base. People have life changing foot and shin injuries from being impacted. People usually don’t cycle as quick consistently through cities, pressing a button on a scooter gets you to over 20km/h in moments.

first, rental scooters in Paris are very commonly geofenced and restricted second, regarding this:

> People usually don’t cycle as quick consistently through cities, pressing a button on a scooter

there are at least 8000 electric bicycles for rent scattered throughout Paris, how in the world is pressing a button on an electrical bicycle any different from pressing a button on a scooter? And I highly doubt your claim that people are e-biking any slower than scooters, too.

Post reply on HN