- Title: Fishing for scooters in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower
- Date: 25th October 2019
- Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (FILE - JUNE 6, 2019) (REUTERS) POINT OF VIEW AS PERSON RIDES ELECTRIC SCOOTER PARIS, FRANCE (FILE - JUNE 22, 2018) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MAN RIDING ELECTRIC SCOOTER THROUGH TRAFFIC PARIS, FRANCE (FILE - JUNE 6, 2019) (REUTERS) TWO PEOPLE WEARING HELMETS AND HIGH VISIBILITY BELTS RIDING ELECTRIC SCOOTERS MAN RIDING ELECTRIC SCOOTER UNDER BRIDGE BY THE RIVER SEINE
- Embargoed: 8th November 2019 14:02
- Keywords: electric scooters scooter sharing scooter ride fishing from River Seine
- Location: PARIS AND WISSOUS, FRANCE
- City: PARIS AND WISSOUS, FRANCE
- Country: France
- Topics: Society/Social Issues
- Reuters ID: LVA002B2LICEF
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:The proliferation of electric scooters for rent in the French capital has spawned a new Parisian profession: scooter fisherman.
Youva Hadjali, who works for the scooter startup Lime, was perched on the banks of the river Seine on Friday (October 25) in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, pulling discarded mud-covered scooters from the water.
Over the course of three hours on the riverbank, he and his colleagues pulled out 15 of the scooters, covered in river mud and algae. The company says where possible, it recycles the salvaged scooters.
The scooter clean-up patrol is one byproduct of a global explosion in shared electric scooters that has helped transform urban mobility but has also stoked a backlash from people angry that their city streets are littered with carelessly parked or discarded scooters.
There are about 20,000 rental scooters provided by a dozen companies in Paris. The city's mayor, Anne Hidalgo, has described them as "anarchic" and transport minister Elisabeth Borne said the city was experiencing "the law of the jungle".
As the number of scooters on the streets has rocketed, authorities on Friday officially entered them in the national highway code, meaning their use is now subject to certain legal restrictions including a limited top speed of 25 kilometres an hour and a ban on riders under 12.
Junior transport minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari visited the headquarters of one of Lime's rivals Dott, on the southern outskirts of Paris on Friday, highlighting the merits of the new law.
The company's French manager Nicolas Gorse welcomed the new rules.
(Production: Martin Esposito, Johnny Cotton) - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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