Paris residents are voting Sunday on whether to banish free-floating electric scooters from the capital's streets in what would be a world-first for a major city. Already this week, the French government increased the minimum age for users of the devices from 12 to 14, boosting fines for their misuse.
Parisians are to be asked on Sunday to vote in a referendum organised by city authorities on whether to ban freely available e-scooters.
Fans view them as a fun, affordable and emissions-free mode of transport, while critics say they are dangerous, often driven badly, and clutter up the capital's already crowded streets.
Lower speed limits and dedicated parking zones have already been introduced in a bid to address complaints by other road users and pedestrians.
Transport Minister Clément Beaune favours tighter regulation for scooters rather than an outright ban.
"It's an important consultation that will be watched by a lot of other towns in France and overseas," Beaune told the Europe 1 radio station. "I find it a shame that we have caricatured and dumbed down the debate.
"Instead of having it as 'for' or 'against', we could do 'for, with rules'," he added.
On Wednesday, scooter operators signed a charter as part of Beaune's regulation plan that commits them to working on safety improvements, extending the life of batteries to at least five years, and recycling their products in France.
"We're still a young industry which is calling for more regulation," Erwann Le Page from Berlin-based Tier told the news agency AFP.
"We know that everything isn't perfect, that there are things to improve... We need to be able to convince non-users that we have a role to play in cities."
Most voters expected to say 'non'
Beaune expects voters in Paris to ban the rental devices, while operators are also privately fearful of a negative result.
Unless they can mobilise their mostly young users to turn out at ballot stations around the capital, voting is set to be dominated by older citizens and those with strong personal reasons for outlawing the devices.
"Paris is going against the current," Hadi Karam, general manager for Lime in France, told AFP, citing decisions to expand the number of e-scooters or extend contracts in Washington, Madrid and London.
"There's a trend towards these vehicles and this trend started in Paris which was a pioneer," he added. "Today everyone else is convinced and Paris is deciding to take a step in the other direction. It's incomprehensible for us."
Peru has already banned motorised scooters from footpaths and pedestrian areas after a woman in Lima had both her arms broken in a collision with one.
