These self-service two-wheelers are deemed too dangerous by the municipality. Before the pandemic, it was even forbidden to ride your own electric scooter. But an experiment in the Bronx could change the authorities’ minds.
Par
Pierre Morel
Published
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If you thought Paris was a pioneer in the fight against self-service scooters, you were on the wrong track. AT New York, the authorities did not wait for the exasperation of motorists to ban shared scooters. Bird, Lime, and other Bolts have never been able to disseminate their machines in the city due to regulations dating from… 2004. All electric scooters – even personal ones – have long been banned because they were deemed too dangerous. The municipality authorized their use on November 23, 2020 in order to facilitate the journeys of delivery people in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Their use has since been authorized from the age of 16, and tourists can obtain them for the day or for a few hours from certain rental companies. But self-service scooters are still banned in Manhattan. We therefore see very few of these two-wheelers on the avenues of New York, unlike most major cities in the countrysuch as Los Angeles, Washington DC, Seattle, or even San Francisco.
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” READ ALSO – Paris: the vote on self-service scooters cost 390,000 euros
An ongoing experiment in the Bronx
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But this situation could change due to an experiment that has been underway since the summer of 2021 in a neighborhood in the east Bronx. The companies Bird, Lime, and VeoRide have received permission to put 6,000 vehicles into service in this part of northern New York with restrictions intended to ensure the safety of users: scooters, for example, are reserved for those over 18 and are limited to 16 km/h during the first three uses. The authorities analyze data on the length, location, duration and time of the routes taken and observe the behavior and, of course, the safety of the users. So far, no serious accident has been reported. The municipality must take stock of this experiment in the summer of 2023 to decide whether or not to extend self-service electric scooters to all ” Five Boroughs ».