03-04-2023, 03:07 PM
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65154854
"Parisians have voted to ban rental electric scooters in their city, dealing a blow to scooter operators and a triumph for road safety campaigners.
Almost 90% of votes cast on Sunday favoured a ban the battery-powered devices, official results showed.
But under 8% of those eligible turned out to vote.
The referendum was called in response to a rising number of people being injured and killed on e-scooters in the French capital.
Of the 1.38 million people on the city's electoral register, just over 103,000 took part, according to offical figures. Of these, over 91,300 voted against the scooters.
Paris was one of the first cities to adopt the electric vehicles - but critics argue they were causing more harm than good.
There was growing concern with the way some people were driving the scooters - weaving through traffic, dodging pedestrians on pavements, and getting up to speeds of 17mph (27km/h).
Riders often did not wear helmets and children as young as 12 could legally hire the e-scooters.
There was also criticism that groups of parked e-scooters were cluttering pavements.
In 2021, a 31-year-old Italian woman was killed after being hit by an e-scooter carrying two people. She fell and hit her head on the pavement, suffering a cardiac arrest.
But operators of the e-scooters argued the vehicles made up a small proportion of overall traffic accidents in the city."
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo called the referendum, where voters could say if they were for or against free-floating e-scooters. Privately-owned vehicles were not part of the vote."
"Parisians have voted to ban rental electric scooters in their city, dealing a blow to scooter operators and a triumph for road safety campaigners.
Almost 90% of votes cast on Sunday favoured a ban the battery-powered devices, official results showed.
But under 8% of those eligible turned out to vote.
The referendum was called in response to a rising number of people being injured and killed on e-scooters in the French capital.
Of the 1.38 million people on the city's electoral register, just over 103,000 took part, according to offical figures. Of these, over 91,300 voted against the scooters.
Paris was one of the first cities to adopt the electric vehicles - but critics argue they were causing more harm than good.
There was growing concern with the way some people were driving the scooters - weaving through traffic, dodging pedestrians on pavements, and getting up to speeds of 17mph (27km/h).
Riders often did not wear helmets and children as young as 12 could legally hire the e-scooters.
There was also criticism that groups of parked e-scooters were cluttering pavements.
In 2021, a 31-year-old Italian woman was killed after being hit by an e-scooter carrying two people. She fell and hit her head on the pavement, suffering a cardiac arrest.
But operators of the e-scooters argued the vehicles made up a small proportion of overall traffic accidents in the city."
Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo called the referendum, where voters could say if they were for or against free-floating e-scooters. Privately-owned vehicles were not part of the vote."
in order to be old & wise, you must first be young & stupid. (I'm still working on that.)