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Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

france24.com

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Re: Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

#521

Post by kevviiinn »

rahimnathwani wrote: post #516
ilikerashers wrote: post #502

You can rent but not own one in London which is bizarre. Random person on scooter they don’t own is safer to TFL.

TfL seems to be focused on ensuring the devices are safe, rather than ensuring the devices are used safely. The operators were chosen after an open and competitive process to assess their ability to meet strict safety requirements and high operating standards. (For example, the scooter batteries can be monitored to ensure they meet fire safety regulations.) Also, AIUI this is a trial , and people might not buy their…

That's because property is more important than people of course. Are you new to capitalism?

Re: Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

#522

Post by 908B64B197 »

tallanvor wrote: post #342
Fradow wrote: post #272

Parisian here, for context I've been cycling to work for about 10 years now (before Paris transformed into a cycle-friendly city). There are a lot of speculations and hypothesis from people who don't live in Paris and try to apply their experience in a different city to Paris, so allow me to offer the experience (obviously I'm biased) of someone living there. The first big misconception is that this ban is only due t…

> What is replaced is a subway, bus, bike, or walking trip. Perhaps on some rare occasions a taxi/Uber. Apart from that last rare occasion, all other alternatives are MORE eco-friendly than the e-scooters. I firmly believe that people running the scooter rental companies know that they can only succeed by destroying public transit. A survey in Norway showed that over half of the trips on rental scooters replaced publ…

> that over half of the trips on rental scooters replaced public transit, and less than 10% replaced trips in private cars.

But did it improve travel time?

Re: Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

#523

Post by VBprogrammer »

resoluteteeth wrote: post #498
VBprogrammer wrote: post #489

I think electric personal mobility vehicles are such a missed opportunity in terms of climate / traffic reduction. Certainly in the UK the fact that they started by being basically illegal for years and means they are, for the most part, ridden by people who don't give a shit or people who's parents don't give a shit.

Luckily the headline is misleading and they're just not banning escooters, they're just eliminating the rental ones.

In fairness, I wasn't commenting specifically on the situation in Paris. More a general comment on e-scooters and similar devices.

Re: Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

#524

Post by michaelt »

yodsanklai wrote: post #503
VBprogrammer wrote: post #489

I think electric personal mobility vehicles are such a missed opportunity in terms of climate / traffic reduction. Certainly in the UK the fact that they started by being basically illegal for years and means they are, for the most part, ridden by people who don't give a shit or people who's parents don't give a shit.

What's wrong with your regular old bicycle? what problem these e-scooters solve than the more ecological bicycles don't?

Well, I agree that bicycles are one of the biggest sources of competition for e-scooters. As a regular cyclist, I haven't noticed any times where I'd need an e-scooter personally.

But theoretically:

1. Something easy to fold and carry on the bus/train can make it easier to use public transport in sparsely populated areas - if you could replace a 20 minute walk to the bus stop with a 10 minute scooter ride. Folding bikes, cool though they are, tend to be on the large side, and kind of expensive.

2. For apartment-dwellers in high-crime areas, it's easier to carry a scooter inside than a bicycle.

3. E-scooters could be more accessible to old people, overweight people, and people who don't want to sweat. Of course, that's not the demographics I generally see using them so make of that what you will. And e-scooters seem to be cheaper than e-bikes.

Is this a big enough market for e-scooters to thrive? I'm not sure.

Re: Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

#525

Post by 908B64B197 »

zamnos wrote: post #377
dijit wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also a problem of shared spaces. Pedestrians and Bikes are a poor mix. Bikes and Cars are a poor mix. but scooters and bikes seem to mix quite well. Malmo, Sweden; where I live, has excellent cycling infrastructure and the scooter "problem" is really miniscule. There are still issues, people parking in stupid ways or taking scooters into pedestrian areas, but overall there are significantly more dangerous driver…

What's interesting about the two photos on your blog is a lack of a lock. The scooters and bicycles where I am (SF) have a lock so they're locked to a bike rack while waiting, which prevents some classes of vandalizing. We had a problem with pedicab drivers dumping the scooters into the bay because of the competition they posed to their business. I think the photo requirement's largely solved the issue, along with th…

> We had a problem with pedicab drivers dumping the scooters into the bay because of the competition they posed to their business.

> who would see a well parked scooter, kick it over, causing it to be across the sidewalk, and then go around complaining about the scooters being in the way.

I wonder why cities prefer to go against the tech companies rather than the criminals vandalizing public property.

Anyways here in SF it's unlikely the DA would actually prosecute criminals.

Re: Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

#526

Post by VBprogrammer »

yodsanklai wrote: post #503
VBprogrammer wrote: post #489

I think electric personal mobility vehicles are such a missed opportunity in terms of climate / traffic reduction. Certainly in the UK the fact that they started by being basically illegal for years and means they are, for the most part, ridden by people who don't give a shit or people who's parents don't give a shit.

What's wrong with your regular old bicycle? what problem these e-scooters solve than the more ecological bicycles don't?

People who can't ride a bike or don't want to. The ability to integrate well with public transport like trains and underground.

Also, without investing hours of research into the subject, I'm fairly sure we can agree that the ecological difference between a bike and a e-scooter are small enough not to mater.

Re: Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

#527

Post by robomartin »

nolok wrote: post #492

To be clear: it's not all e-scooter, it's the free service ones. Parisian can still own and use their own, but they're done with the ones being left on the ground randomly, being used in poor fashion (on the sidewalk, or with two/three people standing on one), being thrown in the river, ... And that's mostly caused by free services ones that you don't own and thus don't care if anything happens to it. I don't live in…

> e-scooter abusing the sidewalk and making people unsafe

I agree with the decision. I am now seeing these things almost as dangerous trash in various cities.

Of course, the problem isn't the e-scooters, it thoughtless people using them.

If users can't be bothered to behave like civilized humans, not sure what options remain on the table other than a ban.

Re: Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

#528

Post by bitshiftfaced »

nolok wrote: post #492

To be clear: it's not all e-scooter, it's the free service ones. Parisian can still own and use their own, but they're done with the ones being left on the ground randomly, being used in poor fashion (on the sidewalk, or with two/three people standing on one), being thrown in the river, ... And that's mostly caused by free services ones that you don't own and thus don't care if anything happens to it. I don't live in…

Why were there free service scooters? Was it a public service or something?

Re: Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

#529

Post by yardie »

lm28469 wrote: post #506
yardie wrote: post #495

103000 votes out of 1.38MM voters. Less than 7% of registered voters even bothered. So we can say 6% were firmly against. I am pro micromobility but some of these companies business models is a complete disservice to public order. It's a real tragedy of the commons. The companies that could implement scooter pens would lose marketshare to the ones that don't since a scooter on any corner is more convenient than a sco…

> The companies that could implement scooter pens would lose marketshare to the ones that don't since a scooter on any corner is more convenient than a scooter stored more than a block away. Make it a condition for operating in the city, just like being capped to 20 or 25kmh is an obligation. Take a car parking space every x00m and make it a e-scooter parking space. That would solve a lot of the nuisance

My city did exactly that. They created scooter pens from public parking. Cars and delivery trucks would park in them regardless. The scooter parking signs and stickers disappeared. And scooter riders just parked in and around those occupied spaces.

Apparently some of the nearby businesses were upset "their" public parking was taken way. So they intentionally damaged scooter pens or parked in them. Rumored.

Re: Paris votes to ban rental e-scooters

#530

Post by M95D »

simplotek wrote: post #391
M95D wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here in Romania, THE CARS litter the urban spaces. There are cars parked everywhere: on the sidewalks, on the side of the road in parallel with those on the sidewalks, in bus stops, on all the green spaces, on no-access markings of the roads, etc. I wish people would use more e-scooters & e-bikes. 8-10 rental e-scooters fit in the same sidewalk space a car would occupy and a car can't be moved if the owner isn't ther…

> Here in Romania, THE CARS litter the urban spaces. Cars are indeed a cancer on all urban spaces, and one which has been granted too much privileges for decades. The Netherlands' Jokinen Plan[1] is widely used as the epitome of idiocy that we get by designing cities around cars. But the fact is that services provided by multinationals like Lime do nothing to address this issue. People do not drop their cars for ebik…

> People do not drop their cars for ebikes just because a multinational dropped one on the sidewalk.

I own a car. About 2 years ago I bought a an escooter and since then I almost never used the car, even in winter (with snow and below 0°C cold).

I was hoping that car users would at least try a rental ebike/escooter, see how easy it is to ride anywhere, park anywhere, and then buy and start using their own.

It didn't happen. It seems there is some very important reason they prefer cars, despite how much it costs and how difficult it is to find a parking spot. I really don't know what that reason is. Someone please enlighten me!

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