89% of Paris Residents Support Ban
South Korean Youth Scooter Accidents Increase 46-Fold
The electric scooter rental business will be suspended for the first time in the world in Paris, France. Attention is focused on whether similar measures will follow in major cities around the world suffering from various incidents and accidents caused by scooters.
On the 2nd (local time), according to foreign media such as The Guardian, the city of Paris conducted a resident vote asking residents of 20 districts whether to continue or discontinue the electric scooter rental service. As a result, in a vote participated by 103,084 citizens, 89% advocated for abolition.
Paris will become the first city in the world to ban electric scooter rental services. A Paris city spokesperson stated that regardless of the voter turnout, the results of the vote will be considered binding.
Earlier, in September last year, Paris requested related companies to establish safety measures due to an increase in safety accidents caused by electric scooters. At that time, Paris stated, "If the problem is not resolved, the permit will not be renewed after it expires in March," and "the continuation or abolition will be decided through a citizen vote in April."
Accordingly, based on the results of this vote, companies operating electric scooter businesses in Paris such as Lime, Dott, and Tier Mobility must retrieve about 15,000 electric scooters in the city and withdraw their business by September 1 of this year.
However, electric scooter companies immediately opposed the voting results. On the same day, they issued a joint statement pointing out the low voter turnout. They claimed that the approximately 100,000 voters who participated in this vote accounted for only 7.5% of the total 1.3 million voters in Paris.
These companies also stated, "Most of the votes were concentrated among the elderly, which widened the gap in opinions," and "electric bicycle services, which are not affected by the vote, will continue to operate."
Rapid Increase in Electric Scooter Accidents in Korea as Well
As pointed out by the city of Paris, electric scooter safety accidents are also rapidly increasing in Korea.
Although legislation related to electric scooters has been implemented domestically, criticism continues that penalties are weak, such as a fine of 100,000 won for unlicensed driving and drunk driving, and 20,000 won for not wearing a helmet.
In 2021, the number of drivers involved in electric scooter accidents and transported to hospitals by ambulance was 17 per day, showing similar types of accidents as general car accidents, including unlicensed driving, drunk driving, wrong-way driving, and hit-and-run.
According to data submitted by the National Police Agency to Kim Jeong-jae, a member of the National Assembly Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee from the People Power Party, in October 2022, personal mobility device accidents among teenagers aged 19 or younger increased about 46 times over five years since 2017.
In principle, an electric scooter requires a driver's license to use, but due to lax certification procedures, teenagers without licenses can also use them, leading to criticism that electric scooter companies have neglected the operation by teenagers.
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