The inhabitants of the capital are called to vote, Sunday, April 2, “for or against self-service scooters”, as part of a risky citizen vote for the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, and which arouses the anger of the operators of these machines, the companies Tier, Lime and Dott.
Introduced in the streets of the capital in 2018 to promote soft travel, the 15,000 scooters available in Paris are now the subject of criticism: according to their detractors, they are dangerous both for users and for pedestrians, regularly abandoned in the public space, all for a questionable carbon footprint. Self-service scooters have become “a subject of tension” among Parisians, said Ms. Hidalgo in an interview with Agence France-Presse (AFP) this week.
The town hall therefore decided, in January, to organize an unprecedented vote so that the inhabitants decide their destiny, while the agreements for the occupation of public space that the operators have concluded with the City of Paris are soon to be due date. How does this vote work? Is it binding? Why is it disputed? Explanations.
In total, 1.3 million Parisians, i.e. those registered on the municipal electoral lists, are called to go to the polls on Sunday. They will be able to vote between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m., in one of the 203 polling stations, gathered on 21 sites, within the district which corresponds to their address of registration on the electoral lists. The final results will be announced on the evening of April 2 by the chairman of the committee responsible for monitoring the vote, and will be published on the Paris City Hall website.
The three self-service scooter operators demanded, for their part, the organization of an electronic vote and the possibility of making proxies, to hope for a strong participation of young Parisians, more numerous to use this mode of transport than their elders. They point out that only 33% of 18-24 year olds “have ever heard of the vote”, compared to “77% of 50-64 year olds and 90% of people 65 and older”, according to a Harris Interactive poll.
Concerned about the outcome of the ballot, operators have mobilized widely in recent days, including with contested methods, in particular by making races free on Sunday or by paying influencers on social networks. At the same time, they distributed leaflets in front of Parisian universities, and paraded on Friday during the traditional crossing of Paris on rollerblades.
The turnout remains at this stage the great unknown of the ballot, while more than 45,000 runners are expected in the capital for the Paris marathon and after a month of March marked by numerous demonstrations against the pension reform. “It doesn’t matter how many,” retorted Anne Hidalgo, interviewed by AFP. The “tools of participatory democracy improve by using them”, she argued.
The announcement of this consultation, in January, did not win the support of the members of the left majority in the Council of Paris. Some communists and environmentalists showed little enthusiasm for this initiative, believing that other topics were more important, such as rentals on the Airbnb platform.
Anne Hidalgo had undertaken to organize a consultation on this subject after the 2020 municipal elections, but this has not taken place at this stage. The initiative is also a source of division among environmentalists. Europe Ecologie-Les Verts (EELV) deputy for mobility, David Belliard, is campaigning “against” scooters, while another party figure, MEP Karima Delli, has called for them to be saved.
The Paris City Council’s only left-wing opponent, Laurent Sorel (La France insoumise), is in favor of banning scooters, but anticipates a “farce” in view of “the sloppy organization of this consultation”, with ” a few posters here and there and timid briefings”. He denounces “a political maneuver” by Anne Hidalgo and believes that this “non-campaign” first serves the Minister of Transport, Clément Beaune, who “takes advantage of it to make the presidential party exist in the capital”.
The minister, who is believed to have the ambition to win the town hall in 2026, announced a plan to regulate the use of scooters on Wednesday, regretting in passing “that we have caricatured and simplified this debate “. “Scooters can be a chance if they are well organized, well regulated”, reacted Mr. Beaune on this occasion.
The right-wing opposition to the Council of Paris, for its part, chose not to call for a vote. “The higher the abstention, the more Parisians will show their indifference to this publicity stunt by Anne Hidalgo”, assumes the group Les Républicains (LR) and relatives. For the LR mayor of the 6th arrondissement, Jean-Pierre Lecoq, “the Parisian executive only seeks to have a decision validated by a vote which it has already taken, but which it does not want to assume alone”.
This vote has only an advisory character, the town hall having the last word. “The opinion of Parisians will commit me,” Anne Hidalgo said in her same interview with AFP. “This citizen vote, which is a first, is similar to a referendum, even if it does not have the legal form,” added the mayor of Paris. Ms. Hidalgo has already made it known that she is leaning towards the withdrawal of self-service scooters in the capital. “My idea is that we stop,” she said in an interview with Le Parisien on January 14.
