Around 20,000 electric scooters have appeared on the French capital's streets since last year (AFP Photo/JOEL SAGET) |
Paris (AFP) - Paris authorities announced Thursday a ban on parking electric scooters on the pavement, in a new crackdown on the fashionable two-wheeled contraptions as pedestrians complain of growing safety risks.
Scooters
"must be left in parking spaces designated for cars and motorised
two-wheel vehicles", the city's mayor Anne Hidalgo said in a press
conference.
She also
banned scooters from parks and gardens in a string of measures which will start
coming into force from next month.
Apps such
as Lime, Bolt, Wind and Flash -- whose scooters have invaded streets in recent
months -- should also cut speed limits to 20 km/h (12 mph) around the capital,
or 8 km/h (5 mph) in pedestrian areas, Hidalgo said.
Around
20,000 electric scooters have appeared on the French capital's streets since
last year, causing tensions that have also been seen in cities worldwide from
Madrid to Los Angeles.
Fans have
embraced scooters as a quick and cheap way to get around, since the
"dockless" devices are unlocked with a phone app and can be left
anywhere when a ride is finished.
That is
exactly the problem, critics say, pointing to scooters strewn across the city's
stately squares or abandoned in piles littering narrow sidewalks, to the bane
of people hauling groceries or pushing prams.
Paris has
already introduced fines of 135 euros ($150) for riding electic scooters on the
pavement.
They have
also been used as makeshift weapons by protesters who have hurled them at
police in the weekly "yellow vest" protests which erupted last
November.
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