• From October 23, electric scooters in Marseille will circulate day and night, on an expected perimeter, announces Audrey Gatian.

  • The deputy mayor of Marseille in charge of mobility also affirms that an Old Port pedestrian all year round is no longer on the agenda.

The city of Marseille is picking up copies of electric scooters this week.

In fact, candidates for the new call for expressions of interest for their operation must return their file.

The deputy mayor in charge of mobility Audrey Gatian details for

20 minutes

the rules of use that will change for electric scooters.

She looks back on the summer pedestrianization of the Old Port and current issues in the field of transport.

Today, in Marseille, electric scooters are unavailable at night.

Will things change with this new call for expressions of interest that goes into effect on October 23?

Yes, the goal is for scooters to remain accessible day and night, with no time limit as we currently have.

The idea was that we no longer have the constraint of removing them, as in the previous convention, to be repositioned in the morning.

It was more or less well organized and easy to do.

It also caused quite a bit of traffic.

We also have scooters that evolve, with interchangeable batteries.

This was the case in all other cities except home.

We know that we have public transport that stops quite early in the evening.

Clearly, scooters do not replace subways or trams.

But we offer a solution that can complement.

Your predecessor had ruled out this possibility for fear of unrest and insecurity ...

I don't think we're taking a risk.

Technology has evolved.

We are on more stable, more secure machines, with headlights.

There are companies that have mechanisms to test whether the person is fit to use scooters at night, through alcoholism, such as logic games.

In general, in this new call for expressions of interest, there has been a lot of emphasis on safety, for everyone.

Operators are therefore asked to restrict scooters at 10 km / h in pedestrian areas, such as La Canebière or during ephemeral pedestrianizations on specific dates, such as on the Corniche.

We have also set up parking areas so that we have more scooters abandoned in the middle of the sidewalks.

Will the perimeter also be reviewed?

We want it to be something bigger, indeed.

We made neighborhood lots with a determined number of scooters, so as to encourage operators to better distribute the offer on the territory, and not only in the hypercentre, which is somewhat the case at present.

Why not put scooters in the northern districts, near the Gèze station?

How many operators did they respond?

Can Lime, who had been severely criticized and dismissed by your predecessor, make a comeback?

There, we reshuffle the cards. There were nine nominations. The analysis of the offers is still in progress. We will keep the three best offers and on October 23, the three successful candidates will deploy their scooters. I think Lime applied. I don't see them not doing it. Marseilles interests them. I know they were aware of their mistakes when they got into the first experiment. We are still talking about the Lime scooters found in the Old Port even though they date from several years ago. We also changed our concept. We have heavier scooters, between 25 and 30 kg. The first models weighed 7 kg. It is not at all the same to lift! Moreover, in our criteria, we want the recovery to be as quickly as possible to limit marine pollution.It is also desired that the batteries have a sealing system.

What is your assessment of the beach service this summer?

We were quite happy with this summer.

After ;

we did not succeed in setting up an ephemeral park-and-ride for that summer.

We were taken by the time because it is very complicated to find available land.

But that's part of our goals.

For example, we have the area at the end of boulevard Mireille-Jourdan-Barry.

There is a roundabout that was supposed to arrive at the end of the southern urban boulevard, but since we don't want it, there is a whole vacant lot behind that could accommodate a park and ride near Pointe-Rouge.

Then of course you have to see with the metropolis.

A new pedestrianization of the Corniche will take place on October 24.

What do you say to local residents who say they are “prisoners of not being able to use the car” during these operations?

Honestly, no one has been jailed at his home.

Then, clearly, we have a lot of letters from residents who are satisfied.

They are the first to take advantage of the calm!

Many even ask us to do this every Sunday.

I saw the article in

La Provence

which said that people were deprived of going to the Plan-de-Campagne shopping center on Sundays.

I think there are so many things to do on a Sunday… Three Sundays a month, when you live on the river, you can go to Plan-de-Campagne!

I think that we are not on a very important restriction of freedoms.

Experienced this summer, will the pedestrianization of the Old Port, somewhat criticized, be perpetuated?

We have to make a comeback.

We sent out a questionnaire to residents which is being analyzed.

We asked them how they felt and what improvements could be made.

The initial project was to perpetuate throughout the year.

I don't think we will do it in the coming months.

There may be new tests that will be done before a global sustainability, taking into account the feedback from residents.

Nothing is done.

Everything is open.

We do not have a timetable on this subject.

Where is the work on public transport after the recent announcements by Emmanuel Macron on the subject?

The President announced the creation of a public interest group (GIP) which will bring together the State, the metropolis, the city, and perhaps even the region within the framework of the creation of a metropolitan RER.

The objective is to have all the players in the territory around the table and to work together.

Clearly, this GIP can change the situation and advance the development of public transport.

We change level and ambition.

For major developments, if the State is involved, that changes everything.

But for now, nothing is set in stone.

Nothing is predefined and we have no timetable.

It's up to the state to tell us.

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