The 15,000 self-service scooters in Paris, banned from the road from September 1, will be transferred to Lille, London or Tel Aviv, two of their operators announced on Tuesday. After welcoming them in 2018, Paris will become the first European capital to completely ban these self-service two-wheelers, at the end of the contracts linking the city to the three private operators Dott, Lime and Tier Mobility.
Parisians had voted in early April against keeping scooters in the city, accusing their users of abandoning them anywhere in public space, or of brushing past pedestrians on the sidewalks at full speed. Lime said on Tuesday that it was going to check its scooter fleet in its Ile-de-France warehouse. They will then leave for the metropolis of Lille but also for Copenhagen, London, or Germany, where they will swell the existing fleets of this Californian operator.
“We had several months to organize ourselves internally and define our priorities. In Paris, we will continue to make every effort to guarantee users their freedom of movement” via a fleet of 10,000 bicycles, said Hadi Karam, general manager of Lime in France, in a press release.
Its competitor Dott began withdrawing its scooters in mid-July, at a rate of 500 per week, a spokeswoman told AFP. After being cleaned and repaired if necessary, they will be sent to Bordeaux, Belgium or Tel Aviv (Israel). Of the fifty or so employees employed by Dott for its scooters, around ten should be transferred to its bicycle rental business. A job protection plan (PSE) is currently being validated.
