For road safety reasons, the maximum speed of rental electric scooters could be restricted to 10 km / h in Paris. Some areas are already under this regime.
It is not only the maximum speed of car traffic that is being revised downwards in Paris. While cars must now travel at 30 km / h, except for a few axes and the ring road, the electric scooters available for rental should also slow down in the capital: Le Parisien reports in its September 7 edition that the thinking is progressing on the subject.
In the current state of things, it would be a question of passing the maximum speed of these machines to 10 km / h in a large number of areas of the city, or even in its entirety, with the possible exception of the boulevards and from the banks of the Seine. This prospect is actually not entirely new: it has already been in the air for months. Moreover, this 10 km / h limit already appears in some very busy places.
In these slowed-down areas, grouped together in the heart of Paris (such as Bastille, Les Halles or République), the speed of self-service electric scooters must be controlled thanks to the geolocation of vehicles, automatically. So the scooter rider does not have to do anything in particular, except to watch out for passers-by and traffic – as usual. Eleven places in all are concerned.
At the time, the mayor of Paris indicated that after the summer, an assessment of this first phase would be drawn to consider extending these provisions throughout the center of the city and perhaps everywhere else. Quoted by Le Parisien, a letter from the mayor of the 6th arrondissement is not in the lace, since he wants to spend almost the entire area under this regime, with one or two exceptions.
Reductions to reduce the number and severity of accidents
These provisions are part of a context where accidents involving these devices occur occasionally. In June, the news was marked by the death of a pedestrian, hit by an electric scooter that was moving too fast. In addition, it was reported that two women were on the machine, which is prohibited: only one person must occupy the place.
The measure, if approved, will primarily concern rental scooters offered by operators, such as Lime, Dott or Tier. However, there is the question of those who have their own electric scooter. If an overall measure of slowing down the speed of circulation of these means of locomotion is taken, its application to other makes and models is to be decided.
Currently, the general rules for the circulation of electric scooters in Paris set the maximum travel speed at 25 km / h (an infringement results in a fine of 1,500 euros). It is forbidden to be two on top (35 euros fine), to drive on the sidewalks (135 euros fine), to wear headphones while traveling and to be under twelve years old to use them .
