Electric scooters are now regulated by the Highway Code.

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Clément Follain / 20 Minutes

  • Self-service scooters are more and more present in major French cities.

  • In 2018, a company tried to settle in Toulouse without municipal authorization, before being banned by the town hall after three days.

  • After announcing the launch of a call for tenders, the municipality indicates that there will be no self-service scooters in Toulouse for questions of dangerousness and urban development.

In the fall of 2018, the first self-service electric scooters hit the streets of the Pink City.

Without authorization from the town hall.

Three days after their deployment, the machines of the Lime company had to be repackaged after a big rant from Jean-Michel Lattes, the first deputy mayor at the time.

Since this quack, many Toulousans expected to see one day or another this very fashionable service land in the big French metropolises, present as well in Lyon, Marseille as Bordeaux.

But the companies Bird, Dott and even Tier will have to chide their brakes for a long time to come.

The town hall, through the voice of its municipal councilor for cycling and new mobility, astronaut Philippe Perrin, has just indicated that this service would not see the light of day in Toulouse.

Promote personal scooters

However, at the beginning of the summer, his colleague and predecessor in mobility issues, Jean-Michel Lattes, had suggested that the arrival of private operators could take place early next year.

“We realized that we had a lot of reservations on a lot of points.

We are not against electric scooters, but against self-service ”, indicates Philippe Perrin who abandons the idea of ​​launching a call for tenders.

For the latter, the machines offered in free-floating are poorly suited to the cobbled streets of Toulouse.

“In self-service, there is an opportunity effect, in Paris they are placed anywhere, in the middle of the sidewalks.

They are also often rented without a helmet and in general these are devices that we do not control.

This causes a lot of facial trauma during accidents, there is no margin of safety for users, ”continues the new elected official.

Far from being opposed to this mode of travel, he says he is more favorable to personal scooters than to rental ones, and would welcome the implementation of a purchase aid, as it exists. already for electric bikes.

In the meantime, he is focusing on the development of cycle paths that every scooter owner can use.

Temporary arrangements put in place during confinement were thus made permanent.

This is the case on avenues Etienne-Billières, de Grande-Bretagne or Paul-Séjourné.

"Many streets have gone from 30 to 20 km / h, and this also contributes to the appeasement of the city", assures the former astronaut.

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  • Toulouse

  • Circulation

  • Mobility

  • Society

  • Scooter

  • Transport