01 September 2023

Today in Monetizing the Public Commons

Paris, France, not Texas, has banned rental electric scooters.

This was inevitable when they held a referendum about this and almost 90% of voters wanted the scooters gone.

The problem is not the scooters, nor is it E-Bikes, it is the "Dockless" scooters and bicycles, which get left all over the place, interfering with people's use of the public sidewalks. 

As I noted some years ago, ""With docked scooters, at least, there is a requirement that the businesses pay for their own storage infrastructure, as opposed to obstructing the sidewalks, but, of course, that won't attract the VC bucks."

Good:

Parisians woke up on Friday, September 1, to a world without free-floating rented electric scooters, loathed as a pedestrian-bothering nuisance by some but mourned by others.

The French capital is the first in Europe to completely ban this type of scooter from its streets, after voters overwhelmingly elected to remove them in an April referendum – albeit on a tiny turnout of 7.5%.

Friday puts an end to five years of seeing users zip through crowds of pedestrians or park awkwardly on pavements and at intersections, as well as a string of accidents. Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo had herself campaigned against scooters, saying removing them would reduce "nuisance."

They are a public nuisance.

Almost any attempt to monetize the public commons is a nuisance.

Of course, the psychopaths among VC's love this, because they get to make money by hurting people.

0 comments :

Post a Comment