European cities and e-scooters at the crossroad

Abstract

Starting from the relationship between urban planning and mobility management, TeMA has gradually expanded the view of the covered topics, always following a rigorous scientific in-depth analysis. This section of the Journal, Review Notes, is the expression of a continuous updating of emerging topics concerning relationships among urban planning, mobility and environment, through a collection of short scientific papers. The Review Notes are made of four parts. Each section examines a specific aspect of the broader information storage within the main interests of TeMA Journal. In particular, the Urban Practices section aims at producing, analyzing and reporting data on recent and relevant policies in the urban domain. The present note analyses the complex relationships between European cities and electric scooters and reports on the case study of Paris where, in a recent non-binding referendum, Parisians opted overwhelmingly to ban e-scooters in the French capital. In doing so, the note tracks the roots of the current e-scooters expansion and reports on the massive deployment of 500,000 free-floating electric vehicles on the European streets (and sidewalks) operated by few private mobility companies in less than three years. After this, the note provides a focus on Paris, the city that pioneered electric scooters in Europe and that will likely take them off the street as of September 2023. The note concludes that the relationship between e-scooters and European cities is at a turning point and provides some suggestions to move forward.

Keywords

• e-scooter
• paris
• ban
• regulation
• european cities
• micro mobility