The heyday of scooters is over. In two weeks' time, it will no longer be possible to tear along the asphalt of Parisian boulevards perched on a green-and-white electric scooter rented for €0.23 a minute. The vehicles of the three providers, Dott, Lime and TIER, will be off the streets by the end of August, following the results of the "citizens' vote" organized by the City of Paris. On Sunday, April 2, 89% of voters said no to rental e-scooters – though, due to a high abstention rate, they represented only 7% of those registered.
All three companies took steps to phase out the 15,000 rental scooters before the August 31 deadline. Dott was the quickest, collecting 3,000 of its 5,000 vehicles back in July. On August 1, Lime announced the withdrawal of its fleet within the month, and TIER began the operation on August 14. "We know how to deploy and withdraw a fleet in a matter of days," said Erwann Le Page, the company's public affairs director for Western Europe. Too bad if the summer season is usually profitable, thanks to the long days, warm weather and hordes of tourists.
While the City of Paris had openly encouraged voters to get rid of the service, the pill is still not going down well. Paris "is an exception in Europe," said Lime in a press release. The Californian company pointed out that its scooters will be reassigned to Lille, Copenhagen or London, which are "leading cosmopolitan and international cities."
The German company TIER will send its scooters not only "to Germany, particularly to Berlin, and Poland, particularly to Warsaw," but also to various cities in the greater Paris region, where the service is "well run," insisted Le Page. The outer suburbs of the Paris region have become a flourishing market for rental scooters, just as Paris is parting ways with them.
As for Dott's vehicles, they will take to the roads leading to Rome, Bordeaux, Belgian cities or Tel Aviv, where the company is based, although it was founded in the Netherlands. In the meantime, the scooters will be serviced and have their parts replaced if necessary. This process takes a few weeks at most.
The three providers share a single objective with Paris City Hall: to shift from e-scooter to e-bikes, each company owning a fleet in the city. Lime has 10,000 bikes and the other two companies have 5,000 each.
What proportion of abandoned scooter users will now opt for a bicycle? During the vote campaign, the City of Paris estimated that around half of them would make the switch. To encourage users to pedal, starting in September, the 2,500 spaces previously reserved on the streets for scooter storage will be converted "into bicycle parking, some with stands, some without," promised David Belliard, deputy mayor (Europe Ecologie-Les Verts) on public space, transport and mobility. However, according to a study conducted by the research company 6T in May 2022, only 12% of scooter users would choose a bicycle if the scooter service was not available.
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