Editor’s Note: Jill Filipovic is a journalist based in New York and author of the book “OK Boomer, Let’s Talk: How My Generation Got Left Behind.” Follow her on Twitter. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely her own. View more opinion on CNN.
CNN
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The people of Paris have spoken loud and clear: get electric scooters off of our streets.
Good. More cities should follow suit.
Over the past few years, electric scooters have been brought to Paris and dozens of other cities worldwide by various startups promising an environmentally-friendly individual transport option. What cities have gotten instead is chaos: scooters shooting down sidewalks at dangerous speeds or laying abandoned on pedestrian thoroughfares. Both riders and pedestrians have been injured and sometimes killed.
Scooters sound great in theory. In practice, they’re much more of a menace than a convenience.
The Paris vote was an overwhelming one, if one with very low turnout — only about 100,00 people voted, but nearly 90% of them cast their ballots in favor of a scooter ban, according to CNBC. It’s easy to see why.
When it comes to scooters, there are often not many rules regulating them, and enforcement is spotty. In Paris, for example, children as young as 12 could rent them and helmets were not required. While the city technically banned multiple riders on a single scooter and scooters on sidewalks, it is not unusual in Paris to see snuggling couples on a single scooter, flying down a city sidewalk.
In New York City, there is a scooter speed limit and scooters are supposed to only be in bike lanes and streets. But again, enforcement is lax, helmets are not required for adults and it’s pretty rare to see a New York City cop doling out a ticket to a scooter rider.
Other cites require scooter riders to abide by standard traffic laws, but a walk through many scooter-heavy metropolises makes clear that these regulations are often skirted.
One problem with scooters is that there is no obvious spot for them within urban infrastructure. They go far too fast to be safe on the sidewalk, and in American cities, sidewalks are often already too narrow to accommodate pedestrians, parents with strollers and people who use wheelchairs…
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