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Paris Bans Rental E-Scooters After Residents Vote 89% to Remove Them

The scooters arrived in 2018 promising a micromobility revolution. By 2023, Parisians voted them out by a margin most elections only dream of.

The Complaints Department

The Complaints Department

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Rental e-scooters parked on a city sidewalk at night
Photo: Ivan Radic (CC BY 2.0)

Rental e-scooters landed in Paris in 2018 and multiplied fast, accessed by app and left wherever the ride ended.

By 2022, the city was logging 459 scooter-related accidents a year, including three deaths. Mayor Anne Hidalgo put the question to residents directly: a non-binding referendum on April 2, 2023, asking whether the scooters should stay.

Turnout was low — under 8%, with in-person, pre-registered voting only — but the result wasn't close: 89.03% of roughly 103,000 votes cast were against keeping them.

The ban on rental operators took effect September 1, 2023. Privately owned e-scooters are unaffected — this was specifically the end of the share-and-leave-anywhere rental model.

Filed from public reporting:

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