Paris residents voted overwhelmingly, nearly 90%, against the continuation of renting electric scooters , following an unprecedented referendum, according to figures published by the French capital's municipality.

And the Paris mayor's office reported to AFP that this "citizenship vote", an unprecedented form of voting in Paris, which was held to resolve a heated debate over the location of these electric bikes on the sidewalks and roads of the French capital, was marked by very low participation, as voters did not skip 8% of the total registered voters.

Socialist Mayor Anne Hidalgo vowed to "fully respect the result of the vote," whatever it may be. She also participated in the election campaigns rejecting the continuation of renting these bicycles, under the pretext of mitigating the sources of "disturbing" in the capital.

After hosting it in 2018, Paris will become the first European capital to completely ban these bikes at the end of the contract signed with the three private operators ("Lime", "Tire" and "Dot") on August 31.

Those who reject these bicycles believe that they cause inconvenience because their users leave them everywhere in the public space, and they move very quickly alongside pedestrians on the sidewalks, in addition to their negative environmental impact, given that they are disposed of within only a few months of use.

And after the death of a 32-year-old Italian in 2021 due to being shocked by an electric motorcycle that had two people on it, the Paris municipality forced operating companies to limit the speed of these mechanisms to 10 kilometers per hour in 700 densely populated areas.

Proponents of this means of transportation consider that it provides a "smooth" ability to move, as does the bicycles offered for free hire, with a special benefit in this period of frequent strikes in the public transport in Paris in the framework of the movements against the project to reform the pension system in France.

The Spanish cities of Barcelona and Canadian Montreal completely banned the free rental of electric motorbikes, while the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, plans to reduce their number by half.