INTERVIEW. 77% of Internet users are calling for the banning of electric scooters in Nice, according to a consultation carried out in our community of readers on Facebook. According to another mini-“survey” opened last summer, you were 86% to believe that the regulations in this area are not strict enough.
Should the screw be tightened more? Gael Nofrithe deputy mayor in charge of traffic, wanted to react.
Christian Estrosi’s team is counting on future deputies to pass a more restrictive law. A ban on access to certain districts for scooters, especially in the old town, could soon be decided in Nice.
Nice-Presse: As in San Francisco in the United States, are we going to ban scooters here?
Gael Nofri: An outright ban on the whole of Nice would not be legal. American cities have more power than ours.
We are already working to enforce the regulations, with more and more control operations carried out by the municipal police.
We also have one of the few big cities in France not to have installed a self-service scooter service. Today there is too much disempowerment, it would have run risks in the public space.
Is the law inadequate?
We are discussing this with our candidates for the legislative elections (Marine Brenier, Graig Monetti and Philippe Pradal, editor’s note). There is indeed a real subject, the current regulations are not precise enough, and insufficiently framing. It is often not applicable.
That is?
Systematic registration of machinery must be required. Today, it is almost impossible to identify an offender with our plateless CCTV cameras. It is a blind spot of the law, our deputies will have to bring this subject to the Assembly.
There is also a tolerance applied in pedestrian zones for machines when they are at walking speed. It doesn’t make sense, any vehicle should be banned there.
What about the age limit for using it, now set at 12?
Setting it at 16, for example, can be a lead.
But what municipal decree could be taken in Nice?
They cannot be prohibited since they are authorized at this walking speed. But we can perhaps highlight the density of movements in a given area to pronounce a ban on access.
For example, we are thinking about banning scooters in restricted areas of the city. This can be considered in so-called tourist or busy areas: Old Nice, Jean-Médecin, Place Masséna, the pedestrian area, etc.
It remains difficult. A simple fine imposed on the basis of a municipal decree would be low (38 euros max). Especially with regard to the signage and the human resources that we should deploy to make it applicable. This is why the law must change.
We must not forget that a ban would penalize all users, and there are many of them, who travel with respect for everyone.
In Villeurbanne, a de facto “ban”
Since 2019, a municipal decree prohibits “on the sidewalks and pedestrian areas of the city, the storage of scooters and vehicles in self-service without a docking station and made available against payment”.
“In fact, it becomes impossible to circulate with these scooters in Villeurbanne” note our colleagues from BFM Lyon. The rental company Dott France, in particular, withdrew from the town in stride.
This activity of free-floating is also not allowed in Nice.
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