Micromobility operator Tier’s French safety board has issued a report with 15 recommendations to enhance users’ safety for the industry and public authorities in France.
The committee gathered independent experts from different fields, including associations, road safety experts, hospital practitioners, charities and MPs, to come up with a common diagnosis of safety issues and their solutions.
Tier’s Head of Public Policy for France and Belgium Pauline Gain told Zag Daily that the initiative – a first of its kind in France – aims to raise standards and contribute to the regulation of micromobility operations in the country.
“Since December 2021, we have held three big meetings and several side conversations to come up with ideas to increase users’ safety. We established a task force with up to eight people to independently contribute to the discussions.”
Private and shared e-scooter regulations are being discussed by public authorities on national and local levels in France. Paris, in particular, is expected to decide whether it will ban e-scooters from the city this month.
“We are in 100 cities in France, 70 of them around the capital, and we have just won the Bordeaux tender which is a big city,” said Gain. “We are very confident in the micromobility presence in France.”
Recommendations
The executive listed the creation of an accident observatory, the generalisation of license plates on shared fleets, further cooperation with the police forces, and actions for vulnerable users as the main takeaways of the board’s recommendations.
An observatory is deemed necessary due to the current lack of clarity in accident statistics. “The information regarding accidents comes from the press, hospitals, and companies, but there is no one single institution to overlook and standardise this,” said Gain.
A proper body that could run it would be an independent institution, said Gain, such as the National Inter-Ministerial Road Safety Observatory in France.
The recommendations also include the development of infrastructure and a parking network for the most vulnerable groups.
“We will now share this document with stakeholders to call for action on these recommendations to create safer streets for micromobility,” said Gain.
