Yego and Felyx self-service electric scooters arrive in Toulouse
If you miss the self-service – or rather “free-floating” electric scooters, available almost everywhere and all the time – in Toulouse, know it. You will soon be able to get back in the saddle. It will no longer be on Indigo Weel branded white two-wheelers, since the company withdrew its offer at the start of the year after the fire in its warehouse in Colomiers in December. It will now be with Yego and Felyx scooters. The town hall of Toulouse has just chosen these two operators to complete its public transport offer.
Each of the two companies will be able to operate for the moment 300 scooters, “see 600 or 800 even, if the craze is very strong at the level of these devices”indicates Maxime Boyer, deputy mayor of Toulouse in charge of roads.
The scooters arrive at the end of April-beginning of May
To admit their own vehicles, the young start-up Yego already deployed in Bordeaux and Felyx present in Holland, Belgium and Germany, will have to ensure that they do not park in an anarchic manner, in the streets and on the sidewalks. “There will be dedicated parking areas”, assures Maxime Boyer. In addition, Yego and Felyx will have to pay, each year, a annual fee of 50 euros per scooter. Their commissioning is planned for the spring, specifies the City in a press release, rather towards the end of April-beginning of May, according to information from France Bleu Occitanie.
Moreover, Yégo and its water-green scooters, present in several European cities such as Paris, Barcelona, Valencia, Malaga and Seville, will hire in Toulouse to run its service. “How many, I don’t know yet, but it will be about ten people”, assures Benjamin Viguier, the Toulouse co-founder of Yego. To use electric scooters from Yégo and Felyx, mobile apps will be required. “In particular, you will have to register your license and your bank card. The Yego app will allow you to locate the scooters to borrow them. _0.29 cents per minute_“details the person concerned.
Return self-service electric scooters, not bicycles
If self-service scooters are therefore back in Toulouse, the town hall did not want it to be the same for bicycles. The experience with Indigo Weel was not conclusive.
Since 2018 and until the beginning of 2022, they were also offered in “free-floating”, by the company Indigo Weel. “We did not want to put a coin back in the machine because we want, as a priority, to develop our VelôToulouse subscription service”, notes the Toulouse elected official without mentioning the problems of incivility well known to Toulouse residents, these bikes placed anywhere, found in the canal, or several kilometers from the Pink City. Indeed, the City is going to relaunch a call for tenders for VélôToulouse, produced by JCDecaux for 15 years, and wishes open new bike stations.
And unlike Paris or Lyon, Toulouse maintains the same position on self-service scooters. The Pink City will do without it.