By summer, Dott’s three hundred shared electric scooters should be parked at designated collection points. This says Mayor Christophe Dehaes (N-VA). There will also be more police checks.
Lee Dee Smidt
In the French capital, Paris, residents voted to remove electric scooters from their city after the mayor organized a referendum on them. This is not the case (yet) in Aalst, but the rules are being tightened. On May 25, 2021, the city council awarded electric transit operator Dott a four-year contract.
“There needs to be more order with a defined plan with collection points where scooters can be parked,” says Mayor D’Haese. This plan should be implemented by summer. In addition, I have given the police an express order to check more and issue tougher words.”
chaos
DeHaes said at the most recent city council meeting that he is concerned about the increase in the number of accidents involving electric scooters: It has increased fivefold in one year to twenty recorded cases, often resulting in head and jaw injuries. Such steps generate a sense of freedom, but at the same time they create chaos in the public sphere. As a government, you have to consider whether you still want to introduce that. We don’t have those complaints of shared bikes.”
Read also. The number of shared motorbike accidents has increased fivefold
“At the moment, possible landing areas have been identified,” Jean-Jacques de Gucht (Open VLD) replies. These are now being discussed with Dott, the scooter supplier, and the plan will then be passed on to the town council committee and finally to the town council, after which we can move forward with implementation. In addition to shared scooters, we will ask Dott to put shared electric bikes back in. The beta period for those bikes is over, but to make this profitable, the radius needs to be increased, so we’re still waiting for the drop zones for that.”
