Toulouse: self-service scooter rental starts with a bang with more than 4,000 trips in one week
It has been a week since it has been possible to rent self-service electric scooters in Toulouse and users are responding, a boom that brings some inconvenience.
“I had been waiting for this for months”, slips a user before putting on his flocked white helmet from the Yego brand, a self-service electric scooter rental operator. For the past week, this new service has been available in Toulouse and according to the admission of the company that is piloting it, the start is more than positive. “We have had 5,000 downloads of the application in Toulouse and already more than 4,000 journeys”, notes Kévin Bournat, manager of the Toulouse branch of the Yego company. A total of 160 scooters were deployed in the streets of Toulouse. “These first figures go beyond our expectations”, slip the local manager again.
The general blackout that occurred on the two lines of the Toulouse metro in the middle of the week undoubtedly boosted activity, but it is impossible to quantify the “Toulouse without metro” effect. On average, users in the first week of deployment spent four euros for their journeys, which represents about fifteen minutes of use. But inevitably, as with the previous operator Indigo Weel, such a service is often the target of damage and vandalism. It didn’t take long for bad guys to attack vintage-designed two-wheelers.
Sanctions in case of abuse
“We have two proven cases of vandalism where the scooters have literally been opened. The rest of the damage is rather due to pilot errors. There were broken mirrors and scratches on the fairings”, details Kevin Bournat. On social networks, the arrival of scooters does not seem to be to everyone’s taste. Several internet users have notably photographed the “wild parking lots” on the sidewalks of two-wheelers. “It hasn’t been a week and there are already scooters everywhere. And in addition, when you want to move them by hand to put them back in an appropriate place, they start to honk, ”annoys a Toulouse man on Twitter.
It’s not been a week and we’re already finding scooters @YegoMobility anywhere. And in addition, when you want to move them by hand to put them back in an appropriate place, they start to honk.
Really great idea, guys. Cheer. ud83dudc4fud83dudc4fud83dudc4f#You go #Toulouse pic.twitter.com/lKIRUaCopj— ?????? (@vctls) July 8, 2022
“We didn’t have to wait very long to see the scooters on the sidewalks of Toulouse. As if the bad habits were going to disappear by a change of operator”, announces another.
It didn’t take long to see the @YegoMobility #gcum on the sidewalks of #toulouse.
As if bad habits were going to disappear with a change of operator.
It’s a shame, we got used to having the sidewalks a little less crowded. pic.twitter.com/eqzeS3QOc1
— François ud83dudeb2ud83dudd27 (@FrenchHamburger) July 6, 2022
With his teams, Kevin Dournat takes care to limit this type of inconvenience as much as possible. “Each wrongly parked user receives a notification. For the moment we are doing pedagogy but if there is abuse we will pass to the sanction. We have commitments to respect vis-à-vis the Metropolis”, he insists.