E-scooters: a tale of two cities as London and Paris plot different paths

theguardian.com:

O n either side of the Channel, a love-hate relationship between e-scooters has run a typically different course. The French swiftly embraced them; the English belatedly entered a tentative trial engagement, with a reluctance to commit.

Now London is aiming to go deeper, re-tendering contracts in April for another year – while the Paris honeymoon could end with the firms spurned altogether. Although the French capital was an early champion of the battery-powered trottinettes, an extraordinary referendum this Sunday will ask its residents to vote for or against “le free-floating” rental e-scooter.

The rental schemes are run by the same micromobility businesses as London’s trial operations, Dott, Lime and Tier. Henri Moissinac, the chief executive of Dott, a Parisian based in London since Covid struck, is indignant: “It’s such a sad story that something so useful could be manipulated for the agenda of the politicians. It reminds me of Brexit and the buses.”

He is infuriated at claims the services are used by an older affluent, clientele, rather than the 18- to 25-year-olds he says are typical: “The head of L’Oréal is not riding on a scooter.”

Polling is on a knife-edge, but the operators say they are not too worried for their own businesses: all three run growing, parallel e-bike operations, which would probably mop up much of the traffic – and whatever Paris decides, the wider European and global trend is for more e-scooters.

Britain appears to be heading, slowly, that way. Private e-scooters remain illegal on the road, although an estimated 700,000-1m are in use. While government-sanctioned trials of public shared schemes started back in 2020 and will rumble on until at least 2024, a transport bill to clarify whether they