They’re back!

Not sure what you mean by change of events. The city implemented new legislation requiring scooters to park in designated locations on the street. There is a 135€ fine for scooters/bicycles on sidewalks. Lime is one of but many companies: Bird, Flash, Dott, Hive, Voi, Bolt, Wind, Tier, Jump, and UFO are some others.

Vélib is back for bicycle rentals but there is also Cityscoot, Allo Vélo, Vélo Paris, and many more.

The only thing I can determine is, with so many companies renting scooters and bikes, there must be a lot of money to be made.

I will leave the regular France posters to answer your question as I have not been back to Paris in over two years. With that said, the Lime Scooters have come to my wonderful city of Minneapolis-you know, the City of Lakes and Bike trails galore. The obnoxious, lazy and overall law breakers are rearing up behind you on a sidewalk (illegally) and nearly running folks over while the legal scooter riders on the bike lanes love to scoot on by 4 across making an enjoyable bike ride along the river less desirable. If this keeps up, we may need to play dodgeball against the Lime scooter gangs.

I hope the peeps riding scooters in Paris are better behaved. #scootersbebad.

Another reason for those of us who live here to stay out of tourist areas where inconsiderate, ill-mannered users continually flaunt the laws regarding no scooter or bike riding on sidewalks Tocard mentioned.

We are staying in the 19e and the people I’ve seen riding the bikes have been for the most part residents of this arrondissement, not tourists. Tonight while we sat outside and had dinner people were riding the rental bicycles with groceries in their baskets, etc. many were riding along the canal for pleasure. We also saw people in the 18e, where we’d gone for a cooking class, riding to work, parks, etc.

I only mention the return of the bicycles (and now scooters) because of their decline over the past 2 years once the private company took over Velib and now they are in the racks again.

We haven’t really been to the “tourist areas” of Paris yet. I’m just reporting about something I’ve observed in Paris over the past 4 years (4 visits) and discussed with friends we know here.

EDIT: The change of events I was referring to involve the perceived health of the rental bike system we used 4 years ago then the absence of working rental bikes and empty stands in many locations once the city turned the management over to a private company. It looks like rental bikes are flourishing again so I was just wondering if the city is again managing at least the Velib bikes or some other management company.

And then there was this thread from a year ago about the demise of the Velib rental bikes so I thought I’d report what I’m seeing now.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/france/velib-help-maitenant

Mona. I live in the 20th and bikes and scooters there are ridden mostly, as you pointed out, by residents, legally. I think you'll notice a big difference in the tourist areas.

The Velib system has always been managed by a private company. At the beginning of 2018, the company which had held the initial contract (JC Decaux) lost out to a competitor, who won the bidding war — but who then utterly failed to deliver. All the docking stations etc that had been built to service the Decaux bikes had to be ripped out and replaced — but the new company seriously underestimated the volume of work and amount of equipment required, and fell flat on their faces. They even had to return months and months of subscription fees.

They have gradually built up a better group of bikes, but I have never gotten the idea that they have ever supplied as many as Decaux did.

Basically, the mayor wanted Decaux out, so she went with the competitor. And they showed that they were not up to the job. A total fiasco.

And yes, one could say the scooter situation is “robust.” I rather call the scooters and their users complete menaces and a public danger.

The scooters are a menace -- my husband tripped over one in the dark at Trocadero where some yutz had just dumped it on the plaza without securing it upright to the side of the walking areas. People routinely dump them across walking paths and sidewalks and they also use them incompetently on sidewalks. It is just a matter of time before some old lady's life is ruined with a broken hub or perhaps death when some newbie using them on a sidewalk careers into her. And they also impede bike lanes. -- all around disaster in urban areas without space for them to safetly operate or places to safely stow them. (same problem in the US -- I managed to trip over one left carelessly along the beach walk in Santa Monica after dark.

Please don't let your daughters ride the scooters, the risk of injury is real. Used to ride them, stopped after a few close calls. They are wobbly, brake poorly, and are really not suited to the many cobblestones of central Paris. And you MUST ride on the road, so you have to be confident that drivers will dodge you.

I hope the peeps riding scooters in Paris are better behaved.

Based on a recent article I read, apparently that's not the case. And it seems other European cities are having problems with them. https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2019/08/07/world/europe/ap-eu-germany-electric-scooters.html?searchResultPosition=6

According to my French friends. The change of contract for Velib was a major black eye for Paris' Mayor Hidalgo.