E-scooters: a transport ‘tsunami’ flooding cities worldwide

(FILES) In this file photo taken on June 22, 2018 electric scooters of the US company Lime are pictured on a sidewalk in Paris during their launching day. - The Paris Town Hall has announced on March 21, 2019 that it will implement a tax on sharing service bikes, scooters and bicycles in the weeks to come in order to better control the parking management. (Photo by Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP)

PARIS: They appeared in June last year as Paris was waking up from its annual all-night Festival of Music: hundreds of green-and-black electric scooters dotting the pavements of the capital.  

The timing was perfect, with the city struggling with a botched revamp of its main bike-sharing service that left countless frustrated users looking for a new form of transport.