Electric scooters owned by private people will not be affected by the ban. Last year, 700,000 electric scooters were sold in the U.S.
Electric scooters won't be allowed on the streets of Paris, France's capital, by a large margin.
According to the website for the city of Paris, the ban got between 85.77% and 91.77% of the votes in the 20 Paris districts that reported their results on Sunday.
The consultative referendum was a success, said Mayor Anne Hidalgo, and the result was "very clear."
"As of September 1, there will be no more self-service scooters in Paris," she said.
Very few people went to the polls on Sunday.
City Hall said that more than 103,000 of the 1.38 million people who were registered to vote in Paris did so.
The vote was called because people in Paris were worried about the hundreds of accidents that had happened with the micro-vehicles, which were introduced in 2018 and can be rented through apps on your phone.
Last year, there were 459 accidents involving e-scooters and similar vehicles in the French capital. Three of these accidents were fatal.
"We're pleased. We've been fighting for this for more than four years," said Arnaud Kielbasa, co-founder of the charity Apacauvi, which helps people who have been hurt in e-scooter accidents.
Kielbasa, whose wife and baby daughter were hit by an e-scooter driver, said, "All Parisians say they are nervous on the sidewalks and when they cross the streets. You should search everywhere."
At the moment, there are three people who run the cars in Paris. They are Lime, based in California, Dott, based in Amsterdam, and Tier, based in Berlin.
Now, Mayor Hidalgo is likely not to give the operators new contracts after August 31. The contracts that are in place will last until September 2023.
When they first hit the market, operators were given a three-year contract that said scooters couldn't go faster than 20kmph (12.5mph) and had to park in specific places.
Operators like Lime say they are unfairly blamed for the often chaotic streets of Paris. They have proposed more rules, like fixing license plates and making sure riders are over 18 so police can find traffic offenders and limiting each ride to one passenger.
Lime and Tier used free voucher codes and online influencers to get young voters to vote against the ban.
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But these steps didn't work to change people's minds.
Francoise Granier, a 68-year-old doctor who voted in the ninth district of the capital, told AFP, "They're dangerous for both drivers and pedestrians."
"And the police never do anything about it."
The consultation won't change anything about private electric scooters, of which the French Ministry of Transport says 700,000 were sold across the country last year.
The ministry says that about 100,000 trips are made every day in France on rented e-scooters in nearly 200 towns and cities.
In 2020, the city of Montreal, Canada, made it illegal to rent or own an electric scooter. In 2020, the city of Copenhagen, Denmark, also made it illegal to rent an electric scooter, but a year later, they brought them back with stricter rules.
SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES
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