Over the last few years, the electric scooter craze has hit Paris big time. Lime, Bird, and Jump (owned by Uber) all operate electric scooter services in the city. It is estimated that there are currently 15,000 electric scooters in Paris right now, with up to 40,000 expected by year’s end.
However, an increasing number of pedestrians say they’ve gotten sick of the abundance of abandoned scooters littering the sidewalks and their riders creating a safety hazard by riding them on sidewalks as well. That’s why France’s transport minister Elisabeth Borne has announced that beginning in September electric scooters will be forbidden to be ridden on sidewalks, reports Le Parisien (via the Independent).
From September anyone caught riding an electric scooter on the sidewalk in France will be fined €135 (about $150). Instead, the use of electric scooters will be limited to the street or dedicated cycling paths. And France is just the latest to place curbs on electric scooter use in cities. Barcelona has banned electric scooter rentals entirely, while Berlin is drawing up new rules limiting their use.
The rising backlash toward electric scooters should be of little surprise to Fast Company readers. In 2018 we said electric scooters were the worst design of the year.
