Paris is about to become one of the only cities to ban e-scooter rentals | Hacker News Reader

Paris is about to become one of the only cities to ban e-scooter rentals

cnbc.com

17 pointsmfiguiere16 comments

While e-scooter rentals are a nuisance so are cars (a lot more tbh), it's just that we've come to accept those as default.

I don't disagree, but at least infrastructure was designed around this, we can hold individuals breaking rules accountable (which doesn't happen enough IMHO, but at least it's possible),

I can't speak for Paris specifically but we have infrastructure for e-scooters; It's bike lanes. If you have a bike lane available, you must use it. If not, the city has decided that mixing bikes/scooters/et. al. with cars is reasonable to do so at that location.

Failing, inadequate bike infrastructure is the real problem in most cases.

Scooters are a lot less stable and faster, and I'd argue not all bike infrastructure that's "good enough" for bikes is also "good enough" for these scooters. I'd feel uncomfortable using them in half the places where I'm comfterable cycling (so I'd use the footpath).

It is forbidden to ride eScooters here on the sidewalk. While my area has copious amounts of bicycle lanes, I would never, ever ride an eScooter in one. The scooters top out at around 17mph and are definitely not human-powered bicycles. I always ride in a traffic lane, because that is my right under the law. I am, of course, courteous to faster traffic as much as possible, but the main lanes are still my right, and I will not be intimidated or shamed out of using them appropriately. (Believe me, they try!)

Paris agrees, and has reclaimed a great deal of space from cars!

That is correct. Also French cars tend to be utilitarian and French people mostly don’t use them as status symbols either which is also refreshing.

Great, they should do the same in London. The keep leaving on the pavement or other random places.

London could just require they be left in designated bike parking. The plus side being that London would have to build far more bike parking, which is sorely needed in any case.

Go one step further and require the companies to ensure their bikes/scooters are returned to the corretc spots.

> just require they be left in designated bike parking.

What is the punishment for non-compliance and who is punished?

Fine the owner (the scooter company) and/or impound it and have them reclaim it (or auction it off if they don't reclaim it). Let the company deal with passing fines through to customers if they improperly abandon it.

But that's easily exploitable: if I see that dickhead neighbour of mine parking up a scooter legally, I can go out there, drag it out a few meters to where it's illegal, and guess who gets the fine? The last user? Wahey!

Or if I have a particular hatred of these scooters, what's stopping me from moving them to be illegally parked and raking up fines? I suppose they'd need constant surveillance (e.g. onboard cameras), but hey, why not, don't we all love our Ring doorbells? /s

The scooter vendor here, Bird, requires that the rider snaps a photo of the scooter as it is parked after any given ride. This assures the company that the scooter was parked properly, and it tends to indemnify the rider against later claims that it was not.

Or they'd need to have designated closed off areas to park them, and maybe attendants. Maybe they could get away with something like bike locks using public bike parking spaces. In any case, how to avoid fines for abandoning property all over the city should be their problem.

Yes, I agree. And I think the obvious outcome is that the fines would be unavoidable, in that the solutions would be financially prohibitive. Thus, scooters would be effectively banned from the city.

Either way, I would be happy to see them gone.

Great example of why referendums should have quorum requirements. If turnout isn't at least 25%,the result should be void.

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