PARIS — Manil Hadjoudj was handing out fliers on the entrance to Sorbonne College, tirelessly repeating, “Do you care about electrical scooters?” to passing college students, most of whom appeared detached to his plea.

“I care about our pension system proper now,” considered one of them stated with out stopping.

Mr. Hadjoudj, 18, had been employed by the three electrical scooter rental firms in Paris to attempt to persuade younger riders to assist save their companies in a vote this Sunday, when the French capital is holding a referendum on whether or not to ban renting the scooters inside metropolis limits.

5 years after the motorized model of the two-wheeled scooters flooded the streets and sidewalks of Paris, this transportation possibility — whose human-powered model has lengthy been widespread with youngsters — has turn out to be a subject of grownup fury, delight and stress.

Metropolis Corridor calls them a menace to public security and environmentally questionable, and needs them gone. The rental firms counter that their scooters are eco-friendly, ease getting across the metropolis and create jobs. They see Paris as a mannequin for good scooter practices around the globe.

And Parisians? They’ve combined feelings.

“They come in useful at night time while you get out of a celebration and miss the final metro to get house,” stated Axel Ottow, 20, stepping out of a subway station. However whereas he stated he used them on uncommon events when no higher possibility was accessible, he identified a generally citied downside: He discovered them “harmful to journey.”

When the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, opened the rental scooter market to 16 operators in 2019, town appeared to have all of the traits of a gold mine for the businesses.

Its small geographic dimension in comparison with Los Angeles, Berlin or London was splendid for short-distance journeys. Many bike lanes had already been put in, providing paths away from automobiles. And vacationers, who turned out to be main shoppers, might get in some further sightseeing as they zipped from the Louvre en path to L’Arc de Triomphe.

In 2022, Paris recorded about 20 million journeys on 15,000 rental scooters, making it one of many largest markets on this planet.

However not less than initially, the machines created chaos, with many riders zooming wherever and nonetheless they needed — on sidewalks, down one-way streets, weaving between automobiles.

“It was an city jungle,” stated David Belliard, the deputy mayor answerable for transportation.

The electrical scooters might race as much as 19 miles an hour and had been parked wherever and all over the place — sprawled throughout roads, sidewalks and even chucked into the Seine.

In 2019, a rider was hit by a van and killed, changing into the primary however removed from the final rental scooter fatality within the metropolis.

Alarmed, town drafted guidelines. Scooters had been deemed motorized automobiles and forbidden to journey on sidewalks. Their most velocity was lowered to about 12 miles an hour and even decrease close to colleges, and particular parking areas had been created. The town launched a high-quality of 135 euros, or $147, for using on sidewalks or carrying a cuddling passenger on the automobiles meant for one, which had turn out to be a romantic Parisian cliché.

In 2020, town narrowed the variety of operators to 3: the San Francisco-based firm Lime, the Dutch start-up Dott and Tier, a German start-up.

“Since that preliminary interval of chaos, we’ve got seen an unbelievable quantity of enchancment in our service,” stated Erwann Le Web page, a spokesman for Tier, who stated the corporate supplied scooters in cities and cities throughout France, together with different cities like Lyon and Bordeaux. Operators say that they made the automobiles heavier to extend stability and that 96 p.c of the machines are actually parked the place they need to be.

However even with all of the rule adjustments, the variety of deadly accidents has elevated together with scooters’ recognition.

In 2021, 24 folks had been killed in France whereas using a private or rental scooter or different motorized gadgets like hoverboards and gyropods, and 413 had been severely injured, in accordance with figures supplied by the State Highway Security Division. Final 12 months, 34 folks died and 570 had been severely injured within the nation. Accidents on scooters have turn out to be “a serious well being downside,” the French Nationwide Academy of Medication stated.

“Scooters have a picture of lightness and carelessness, however in addition they trigger drama and dying,” stated Arnaud Kielbasa, who arrange an affiliation in 2019 for scooter victims after somebody using one knocked down his spouse, who had been carrying their 7-week-old child woman, who was hospitalized with a concussion.

With 20 million journeys taken final 12 months, nonetheless, it’s apparent that an enormous variety of riders settle for the hazard. For scooter riders, helmets are really useful however not required by regulation, and the Nationwide Academy of Medication has stated that nationally, “in severe crashes, helmets weren’t worn 9 out of 10 instances.”

For the staff of the scooter firms, their livelihood can also be on the road in Sunday’s vote.

“I don’t know what I’ll do subsequent if the corporate has no selection however to fireplace me,” stated Salifou Kaba, 26, a Tier worker whose job is to journey round Paris on an electrical cargo bike to vary the scooters’ batteries. The job has introduced him a greater place to dwell, financial institution mortgage approvals and stability, he stated. “That’s why I’m afraid of Sunday’s outcomes,” Mr. Kaba stated.

The businesses insist that their scooters, which run on electrically charged batteries, provide a low-carbon various to automobiles, which ought to, they are saying, make them enticing to Paris and its mayor, who has championed inexperienced initiatives.

The automobiles “helped scale back air pollution in about 600 cities on this planet, together with 100 in France,” stated Mr. Le Web page, pointing to a city-sponsored examine that confirmed that 19 p.c of scooter journeys would have in any other case been made by automotive.

That very same examine, nonetheless, discovered that greater than three-quarters of the customers would have in any other case walked, taken public transportation or biked if scooters weren’t possibility.

“Positive, scooters don’t emit any air pollution like a automotive,” countered Mr. Belliard, a member of France’s Inexperienced celebration. “However an enormous majority would have used modes of transportation which can be already decarbonized.”

Nationwide, greater than 750,000 electrical scooters had been bought in 2022, after a document 900,000 in 2021, in accordance with the Federation of Micro-Mobility Professionals, which incorporates scooter distributors and retailers. And the mayor of Lyon, France’s third largest metropolis, has simply agreed to a four-year extension of its contract with Tier and Dott.

However Paris’s Metropolis Corridor, as soon as excited to carry the brand new transportation option to the French capital, is now eager to see it gone. As a substitute of banning the scooters outright, Ms. Hidalgo and her deputies determined to let the general public vote within the referendum. A latest ballot confirmed that 70 p.c would vote towards protecting them.

If Tier, Lime and Dott lose Sunday’s vote, their contracts with town won’t be renewed, and the scooters’ zigzagging presence in Paris will likely be passed by the tip of August.

The operators have mounted a marketing campaign in favor of protecting the scooters. They’ve criticized the truth that on-line voting — uncommon in France — was not allowed, arguing that its absence deters youthful voters from collaborating. They’ve additionally complained that the geographic boundaries of who can vote had been too restrictive, excluding folks within the suburbs.

Within the week earlier than the vote, the social community TikTok was buzzing with messages utilizing the hashtag “sauvetatrott” (“save your scooter”), and Parisian social influencers have expounded on the significance of saving the “most romantic factor to do in Paris” or the one transportation service that’s “not affected by nationwide strikes.”

However many Parisians would discover their ban a aid.

“I don’t name them scooters, I name them rubbish,” stated Olivier Guntzberger, 45, an electronics salesman. Outdoors his storefront on a slender road close to the Champs-Élysées, 20 scooters had been piled in a parking house. “I’m not going to cry over them,” he stated.

Catherine Porter contributed reporting.