Reprint from Electrek
Paris, like many large International cities, has not been immune to the electric scooter phenomenon. As thousands of electric scooters have flooded Paris streets over the last year, the city has made efforts to curtail their expansion. Now Paris’ Mayor has announced that the scooters will no longer be able to park on the sidewalk and has attempted to severely limit the speed of the electric scooters across the city.
Electric scooters are everywhere in Paris
As a geographically small yet densely populated city, Paris has seen an explosion in popularity of electric scooters.
The city is small enough that that scooters can reach just about anywhere, yet large enough that walking isn’t always a convenient option.
Paris currently has 12 electric scooter companies operating across the city. Reports suggest that there are as many as 20,000 electric scooters in operation citywide.
But as useful as the electric scooters are for riders, they have become a problem for non-riders, i.e. everyone else. With the notoriously narrow streets and sidewalks of Paris, electric scooter riders and pedestrians have often struggled to share sidewalk space safely. That led to a ban on electric scooters riding on sidewalks in Paris last year. Instead of riding sidewalks, scooters were forced to ride on the road or in bike lanes. But scooters were still allowed to park on the sidewalk, or at least until now.