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Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

france24.com

281–290 of 571 posts

Re: Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

#281
post #246

Just a precision, (private) e-scooters are still allowed. The vote was on renewing or not the contracts of free floating solutions like Tier, Lime, etc

Anecdata, but the vast majority of people I see using using escooters in Australian cities are kids and drunk people.

It’s not hard to see either: they’re bright orange or purple, and are usually seen on a Saturday or Sunday morning dumped thoughtlessly in disabled ramps, in a gutter, or some other place that a drunk might find convenient.

Re: Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

#282

It's a shame they are being banned in many places, because they are such a great idea. It's the equivalent to a taxi, but a small fraction of the price. It's such a great utility to be able to pick one up and go directly to your destination. All the advantages of having a bike, but without most of the downsides. People just needed to be somewhat polite and disciplined - too many ride fast on sidewalks, leave them in…

What exactly are the downsides of owning a bike that you don't have owning a e-scooter?

I'm more comparing own vs rent. Rental e-bikes are great as well, 90% as good as the scooters. Disadvantages of keeping your own:

1) Need to take it with you on the train/bus/car

2) Need to lock it to something secure when you leave it (especially e-bikes/scooters which are expensive)

3) Need to pick it up from the same place you left it last time.

4) Need to buy it (€1000+) and maintain it, and charge it

5) Need to store it somewhere secure when not in use

6) The parking scales really poorly: if 10 people can use a hire-bike in a day, but 1 person can use a private one, this would mean the private bikes would take 10x the amount of parking per user.

Re: Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

#283
post #194

I visited Paris last year and had a very cute midnight scooter ride with my girlfriend down the Seine. It was like out of a movie. But the ride costed like $17 each, it would have been cheaper to just get an Uber directly back to our hotel. And I no doubt caused some french drivers/pedestrians some grief because I had no idea where I was going most of the time. So frankly I get it. But this makes me ask the question:…

> They would be far too expensive to rely on for commuting or predictable use.

In my city they have a season pass option that makes them economically viable for commuting.

Re: Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

#284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but between an aggressive ticketing campaign That’s how you solved it. Paris is entirely unable to perform such a campaign, because it would “target minorities unfairly” as they say, and Paris is at something like 10x fewer policemen per population compared to the average of US cities, which puts Paris in the category of “self-managed” much more than other cities of the same size.

because it would “target minorities unfairly” as they say Is it true, that Paris police target minorities unfairly? And, it is interesting that you chose to compare Paris with a very large population, to an "the average of US cities". Would it be more reasonable to compare to the megas in the US, like NYC, Chicago, Los Angeles? Better, it would be more reasonable to compare to large European cities: Berlin, Frankfurt…

NYC and Chicago yes, LA would be unfair considering the city footprint.

Re: Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

#285

Three main reason e-scooters and even bicycles take to the sidewalks, is that they are totally unsafe sharing the road with the cars, and that there's a lack of bicycle lanes. Once again, the absolute worst offender when it comes to safety inside towns - the car - gets spared from any responsibilities.

Oh poor users of e-scooters and bicycles, they feel so threatened by cars, but have no problem to mown people on sidewalk.

When a bicycle mows down a person, they both get a bruise and go on with their life.

When a car mows down a cycle, the cyclist usually dies.

Re: Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

#286
post #194

I visited Paris last year and had a very cute midnight scooter ride with my girlfriend down the Seine. It was like out of a movie. But the ride costed like $17 each, it would have been cheaper to just get an Uber directly back to our hotel. And I no doubt caused some french drivers/pedestrians some grief because I had no idea where I was going most of the time. So frankly I get it. But this makes me ask the question:…

> But this makes me ask the question: who uses these? Looking at my own behavior I never touch them in the city I live in. They would be far too expensive to rely on for commuting or predictable use. Shared e-bike/e-scooter are the most convenient solution to the last mile (there's very little alternative, actually). The last mile problem is very concrete, especially if it's a routine two-way trip; without e-transpor…

For just the last mile, and for a regular commute, the private options are a folding bicycle, or to leave a second bicycle locked at the station.

Folding bicycles are most common in London, where the high cost is still lower than adding a metro/bus supplement to a rail commuter ticket.

A second bicycle locked at the station is not unusual in Dutch cities, Copenhagen etc, where there are thousands locked around major stations.

Re: Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

#287
I wonder if there have been any social studies done regarding the apparent sense of entitlement that comes with operating any kind of vehicle. E-scooters are an absolute menace nearly everywhere I've seen them being used, with their operators weaving between pedestrians and cars alike, and littering the kerb when unused. But the same is often true for bicycles, especially the fast electric kind, and it's certainly true for many cars. Only, cars have been given a special kind of kerb where they can take up space.

For some reason, we've come to accept the dominant position of cars and the absolute entitlement (and douchebaggery!) that comes with it. But we seem to be unwilling to accept the same from bikes or scooters.

I'm happy to accept the scooter menace if it means fewer cars on the road. And given how much of a nightmare traffic is in Paris, I'm surprised that Parisians don't seem to agree. But then I guess thes ones who voted against this probably feel entitled to their preferred mode of transport over all others ... ?

Re: Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

#288

Great, lets now move to ban them from other EU capitals. Its an issue in Berlin, so many youths ride these scooters recklessly on footpaths, hurting pedestrians or worse.

'E-scooters have safety risks, let's encourage people back into 2-ton fossil-fuel-burning cars instead!'

If we want a future of EVs, we need to figure out how to include personal light EVs, not just very expensive full-size-car replacements for the wealthy.

Re: Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

#289

It's a shame they are being banned in many places, because they are such a great idea. It's the equivalent to a taxi, but a small fraction of the price. It's such a great utility to be able to pick one up and go directly to your destination. All the advantages of having a bike, but without most of the downsides. People just needed to be somewhat polite and disciplined - too many ride fast on sidewalks, leave them in…

People are the reason we can't have nice things. Or maybe is is the free floating idea. I remember in Brisbane and Helsinki there were fixed stations to borrow and return bikes to/from. But it seems this tiny limitation of convenience (can't drop it wherever) breaks the concept.

Re: Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

#290
post #246

Just a precision, (private) e-scooters are still allowed. The vote was on renewing or not the contracts of free floating solutions like Tier, Lime, etc

Funnily enough we have the exact opposite in the UK. Private scooters banned, rental scooters laying all over the pavement.

I lean towards private scooters as more preferable because they don't clutter the public space. However, because they aren't regulated, some people have extremely fast models. Not uncommon to see someone doing 30mph+.

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