Forty self-service electric scooters land in Dijon on Wednesday September 18. We explain how this new service will work.
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They arrive ! Forty self-service electric scooters will be deployed in the streets of Dijon from Wednesday, September 18. Behind the project, we do not find an American company like in other French cities, but a Dijon company launching under the name of Ireine.
To borrow a scooter, everything happens with a mobile application, available on iPhone and Android. After creating an account and providing your bank card information, you can locate all available scooters on a card.
To unlock a machine, simply scan with your phone a QR Code bar code installed on the handlebars. And all that remains is to set out.
The rates : 1 euro to unlock the scooter, then 22 cents per minute of use. This represents 4.3 euros for a quarter-hour journey, 7.6 euros for half an hour. Tariffs aligned with those charged by operators located elsewhere in France.
© France 3 Bourgogne
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Eight strategic locations chosen
Electric scooters have a range of around thirty kilometers and can travel at 25 km / h maximum. They will be picked up every evening to be recharged, before being made available in the morning from 6 a.m.
“Our technical service will constantly ensure that they are used properly. We will also be responsible for picking them up and delivering them to strategic locations”, says Mathilde Delcourt, corporate communications officer. Eight points were chosen, where five machines will be found each morning:
- the train station
- Place du Théâtre
- Republic Square
- la place Darcy
- la place Wilson
- place du october 30
- the Colombière park
- the faculties
Once their race is over, users can drop their gear anywhere, even beyond the borders of Dijon. There are no charging stations as can be the case with the DiviaVelodi, the city’s self-service bikes. Despite everything, it will be necessary to respect some basic rules.
“We don’t want scooters to be dropped off in an anarchic fashion in the city. Our goal is really to empower people, to communicate a lot about the rules that we will have to respect “, we add on the side of Ireine. Those who do not stay in the nails can have their account blocked.
In the long term, the scooter fleet could include around 100 vehicles. “We do not intend to flood the streets of Dijon. We just want to offer Dijon residents an innovative means of mobility and in the spirit of the times”, says Mathilde Delcourt. It remains to be seen whether the inhabitants will adopt and treat this new means of transport well.
Self-service electric scooters in Dijon from Wednesday
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Electric scooters: when a success turns into a puzzle
Widely available, easy to use with a simple smartphone, electric scooters have become essential in a flash. But their uncontrolled proliferation, without any regulation at the start, quickly turned into a nightmare.
“It was done very quickly and a bit anarchically”, sums up the French Minister of Transport Elisabeth Borne. “It has indeed become the law of the jungle.”
In Paris, the city initially taken aback finally put a serious brake on a development that had become chaotic. Scooters are currently around 20,000 in the capital.
In early June 2019, Paris announced the ban on scooters from parking on the sidewalks and asked operators to limit the speed to 20 km / h throughout the capital, or even 8 km / h in pedestrian areas. She thus imitated other cities of the world also invaded by scooters.
“A planetary phenomenon in two years”
The phenomenon appeared in September 2017 in California when a start-up called Bird started to offer them in Santa Monica. Six months later, it was San Francisco’s turn and, in May 2018, a competing company, Lime, entered the market.
In a few months, the two start-ups spread to Paris and then across Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America. Today, Lime and Bird are the first on the market.
“This is the fastest development in the history of new mobilities”, recalls Joel Hazan, France director of the consulting company Boston Consulting Group. “It has become a planetary phenomenon in two years”.
Faced with this invasion-like surge, San Francisco reacted less than two months after the appearance of scooters by simply banning them at first, before finally authorizing them but in limited numbers and as part of a trial period with two operators.
Other cities followed. New York has banned them, pending new legislation. Chicago has launched a four-month trial period with ten operators. Lisbon has established prohibited parking zones. Madrid requires operators to obtain permits. And in Brazil, users must pass a test before they can ride an electric scooter.
In London, electric scooters are prohibited on both the roadway and sidewalks if the user does not have a license, insurance, helmet, license plate and pays a fee.
(with AFP)
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