From September, there will be no electric scooters on the sidewalks of Paris.
(Photo: Bloomberg)
Berlin The Paris referendum in early April, which decided to ban electric scooter rentals in the French capital from September, sparked a stir across the industry. Dealers fear the vote will send a signal. Suppliers such as Tier, Voi, Bolt and Co. are familiar with such bans. As a study by management consultancy McKinsey shows, they are commonplace in the world’s 100 most populous cities, which collectively have a population of 1 billion.
As a result, 35 of these metropolitan cities have banned the rental of e-scooters, citing the risk of accidents, space requirements in public spaces and possible confusion on sidewalks. The high number is mainly because China has stopped using it completely. That’s why there are no photos of Chinese riding electric scooters in cities like Beijing, Shenzhen and Guangzhou — even though many of the scooters used around the world are made there.
However, it is not only China that relies on the ban. There are other major cities in the world that cannot be rented out. These include Barcelona, Philadelphia, Sydney and Toronto. Paris will be added soon, possibly as the first European capital. At the end of August, the licenses of three suppliers, Tier, Lime and Dott, will not be renewed. This is a severe blow to the electric scooter start-up that has tried everything to turn around. Tier has laid off more than 200 employees to cut costs. Experts expect consolidation.
Some cities control the total amount through bidding
According to McKinsey’s survey, the remaining 100 world metropolises regulate the use of electric scooters through bidding or completely by the suppliers themselves, and 13 of the 100 major cities use bidding to regulate and stipulate the number of suppliers. This is done, for example, in Washington, Los Angeles, and Madrid in Europe.
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The industry has championed this approach and has now produced its own city guidelines. McKinsey research noted that this form of regulation could make it harder for new competitors to enter the market and could make it easier to build their own e-scooter infrastructure, including special paths, parking spaces and charging stations. This in turn will help to better integrate e-scooters into transportation as a green mobility solution.
According to the research, there are 23 other cities that fully allow renting and do not limit the number of suppliers. They simply report to the authorities and obey general requirements such as speed limits or the zones they are allowed to operate in. This is how Tokyo, São Paulo and Berlin are handled, for example. The rest of the big cities have so far not controlled the use of e-scooters at all. These include Mumbai and New Delhi as well as Cairo and Dhaka.
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