Parisians voted overwhelmingly in a “mini-referendum” on e-scooters to remove them from the streets..Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said the vote sent a “very clear message,” with 89% rejecting the scooters, leaving just 11% wanting to keep them..The city’s contracts with the three e-scooter operators expires at the end of August and the 15,000 scooters will leave central Paris..Approximately 103,000 people voted on the “For or against self-service scooters in Paris?” question..Paris has 1.38 million registered voters, and the mini-referendum turnout was very low..Hidalgo said she would respect the referendum's outcome and not renew the contracts..The voters’ “very clear message now becomes our guide,” said Hidalgo..“With my team, we'll follow up on their decision, as I had pledged.”.The scooters are available through a downloadable app and cheap to rent..They are mainly used by tourists and some Parisians who want an alternative way to move around central Paris instead of taking the Metro public transit system and cannot afford their own scooters..The scooters were introduced five years ago after Paris allowed shared bicycles and shared cars..Parisians' main complaints against scooters are that they interfere with traffic and an eyesore..The scooters can be picked up and dropped off anywhere in central Paris, creating rental “flotillas” of large groups of scooters sitting on the sidewalks..Scooters have been involved in hundreds of accidents.
