Riding your Wheel in France

[Tree Camper]

Has anyone any experience of Riding their wheel in France?

eg. whats the law there?

or is it similar to UK eg.

Keep off the roads, Footpath (still a grey area) parks and private land Ok with permission.

[Chrisxr2]

No experience riding in france, but beware it's full of French people.

[Tom]

No  direct experience, but based on the urban360 map website france has the highest concentration of EUC riders of any city outside Asia, so I think it should be pretty uneventful regarding the law, I imagine the police have seen many many EUC 

Edited November 9, 2015 by Tom

[zechocapic]

I live and ride in France. Near Paris. We ride on sidewalks or bicycle paths.

I've met policemen 3 times and no problem until now with the law. From what i've read on the french forums nobody has been fined or even warned about it.

Future may change things but for now our life is quite serene.

Edited November 9, 2015 by zechocapic

[Paddylaz]

Any country where they do Segway tours (which use both pavement/footpath/sidewalk as well as roads) in their capital city is likely to be absolutely fine for eucs.

Regardless of what any dated legislation may or may not say. 

Im looking forward to taking my Lhotz to Madrid, Paris and Barcelona in the future once it arrives. Beautiful cities and have done awesome Segway trips there in the past ?

[Mono]

I have been riding about 1000km in Paris. No problems with officials. Once I was asked to step down by a ticket inspector while riding in the metro gangways (followed by all kind of kind questions about the device). Once I was asked to step down while riding in a park (and where I wouldn't have expected it). Even the French can be occupational at times.

Edited April 27, 2023 by Mono

[Tree Camper]

Well thanks for all the replies guys. It has set my mind at rest somewhat. Will post how I get on.

I guess a lot is to do with how you ride and if you bump into the wrong policeman.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnlIWpZSPXU

[faipassa]

Hi,

Officially, the EUC are still not allowed on the public domain. Now practically speaking, except 1 or 2 towns where politicians try to make buzz with it, they is a kind of gentleman agreement with allow us to ride peacefully. Most of the people even didn't know it exist and this includes the police. When they stop riders for a "control", this is (still) by curiosity...:-)

Enjoy.

F.

[TomK]

You live in EUC paradise 

[faipassa]

52 minutes ago, TomK said:

You live in EUC paradise 

So far, so good.

[OFFTOPIC]

Isn't that cool in Germany? I actually live close to the border with your country and ride over there time to time on Mosel banks. Never questioned myself whether or not this is somehow risky...

[/OFFTOPIC]

Edited November 10, 2015 by faipassa

[TomK]

It depends on the area in Germany. Especially in Bavaria it can happen, that an overzealous policeman confiscates your EUC and later on you get a high fine for driving without insurance. Despite the fact, that it’s hardly possible to get an insurance.

[sylvere]

Hi all 

in France we are considere has SUPER WALKER , you can drive on sidewalk and bicycle road on a normal speed.

 

WELCOME TO FRANCE 

Edited November 12, 2015 by sylvere

[Tree Camper]

Thanks @Sylvere looking forward to riding in France. We may even meet some French EUC'rs.

[sylvere]

@tree if you come to Paris , please connect to my facebook page name gyroroue-shop. We sharing there EUC'rs evenement  .... Since june we met every fridays  and more .... Will be happy to show you Paris.

[faipassa]

On 12 November 2015, sylvere said:

Hi all,

in France we are considere has SUPER WALKER , you can drive on sidewalk and bicycle road on a normal speed.

WELCOME TO FRANCE

Yes and No. Officially, yes, we're super walkers on sidewalk but then we're supposed   to ride 6 km/h max...which is not really what we can consider as normal speed for most of EUCs

[Tree Camper]

Well just back from France. Road my wheel all over the place on footpaths, roads and there are so many bike tracks around that I used those a lot.

I even rode past Police but they were mostly busy with the terrible thing that happened in Paris. 

It was fantastic to ride around small towns and some campsites everyone I met was positive and wanted to know how it worked what it was called etc.

As we traveled across the channel by ferry we had no difficulties with batteries like on aircraft.

I may have just been lucky, but if you use common sense and ride courteously the chances of being told off or worse are small.

Would definitely take the wheel again most people just smiled.  

[faipassa]

Great! Happy to read you enjoyed your stay in France. You're right, riding courteously is the key

Edited November 30, 2015 by faipassa

[Tree Camper]

A couple of Sunset pictures at Cap Ferrat in France.

We had a great time riding around France.

Dune du Pilat in the background. 

 

[Lutalo]

My son is an exchange student in Paris. I shipped him his KS18L to ride in Paris. He has been advised against riding EUCs in Paris by school authorities. (Originally, I thought the municipal police stopped him ) He told me that school officials read him a French regulation that bans EUCs on public roads. 

I am working on getting more details and a reliable source to confirm this regulation. I don't want my son harassed over his wheel.

I know that there are a high concentration of riders in Paris so I thought he would be okay and shipped his wheel. Now, because of this I have advised my son to sell the 18L and let Parisians deal with their own authorities; We don't need the hassle. 

At least some lucky Parisian will be getting an awesome KS18L. I will place an actual ad for the wheel today or tomorrow.

It's probably better to offload it in Paris anyway. The shipping to Paris was much cheaper than return shipping to the USA from France. I will get him a new wheel when he is back in the US. Still feels like it sucks though.

[null]

EUCs (and all individual EVs save bikes) are officially banned from public roads, but absolutely no-one respect that. Even Lime / Bird etc scooters operate in Paris. The reason is mainly lack of regulations, and a new law is to go through parliament this spring (or so) that will allow EUCs (etc) on the bicycle tracks and limited to 25 km/h ( https://www.geovelo.fr/ for maps of that). I can't find an English source but the law proposition creates a new vehicle category called "NVEI" if you want to dig further.

There is a -lot- of "NVEI" on the streets of Paris and no-one will batt an eye if you stay on the bike path. ( Even outside but I wouldn't recommend)

translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fgyronews.com%2Fles-nvei-deviendront-une-nouvelle-categorie-de-vehicule-2399

Edited February 8, 2019 by Mimolette
url

[Coffee guy]

@Lutalo, I want to assure you via my personal experiences (plural), that it's not likely your son will be hassled. Courtesy, respect, and strength in numbers are what EUC and most any electric vehicle riders in France in general, and Paris in particular have. I've been many times there, and 'no probs' by authorities. There are also several euc organizations in Paris, and I've ridden with them in the past.  These groups are passionate, and 'very' well organized.   By the way, I'm a native New Yorker living in Switzerland (5 yrs now). France is a hop n skip from me by car or train. And either of these transport ways are also problem free with EUC's.  I hope this adds some assurances for you and your son.  If you still have any doubt, have him contact any of these eWheeler groups for guidance. Till then, I wouldn't sweat it.

[Alexela]

Hello,

I live on Paris and commute everyday hère. I made around 7000 kms by wheel. I never had any kind of problems with authorities.

But now there is a lot of electrical scooters in the streets, and on the sidelwalks people are getting a little bit upset with all this traffic jam.

So it is much better to ride in the bicycle paths.

Edited February 9, 2019 by Alexela

[Rehab1]

On 2/8/2019 at 12:40 PM, Lutalo said:

My son is an exchange student in Paris. I shipped him his KS18L to ride in Paris. He has been advised against riding EUCs in Paris by school authorities. (Originally, I thought the municipal police stopped him ) He told me that school officials read him a French regulation that bans EUCs on public roads. 

That is a bummer! I’ve seen videos of many  people riding around Paris. Hopefully some French riders on the forum can offer some guidance. I would hate to see you go through all of that trouble selling the KS18L only to find out the school authorities were misguided. 

[Smoother]

On 2/8/2019 at 5:40 PM, Lutalo said:

My son is an exchange student in Paris. I shipped him his KS18L to ride in Paris. He has been advised against riding EUCs in Paris by school authorities. (Originally, I thought the municipal police stopped him ) He told me that school officials read him a French regulation that bans EUCs on public roads. 

Yeah, don't worry about that nonsense.  Have you seen the Paris group rides?  Over 100 EUCs at a time.  The school can keep him from riding on school property, as it's private land, and informing him about the city regs was simply a friendly thing to do for a foreigner who may not know.  But, all the evidence says riding an EUC safely and courteously in Paris will not raise an eyebrow from anybody.  The ONLY caveat I have is possibly the rental escooter boom of 2018 has pissed off enough Parisians that new laws have been introduced to crack down on stupid, selfish, irresponsible PEV  riders, which MAY catch EUC riders in the same net.

[Marty Backe]

On 2/8/2019 at 9:40 AM, Lutalo said:

My son is an exchange student in Paris. I shipped him his KS18L to ride in Paris. He has been advised against riding EUCs in Paris by school authorities. (Originally, I thought the municipal police stopped him ) He told me that school officials read him a French regulation that bans EUCs on public roads. 

I am working on getting more details and a reliable source to confirm this regulation. I don't want my son harassed over his wheel.

I know that there are a high concentration of riders in Paris so I thought he would be okay and shipped his wheel. Now, because of this I have advised my son to sell the 18L and let Parisians deal with their own authorities; We don't need the hassle. 

At least some lucky Parisian will be getting an awesome KS18L. I will place an actual ad for the wheel today or tomorrow.

It's probably better to offload it in Paris anyway. The shipping to Paris was much cheaper than return shipping to the USA from France. I will get him a new wheel when he is back in the US. Still feels like it sucks though.

I've been watching Paris EUC ride videos for years. They have hundreds of people riding. Have you seen Non-stop-Neil's recent videos, all shot around Paris?

You know, there are regulations and then there are regulations. All indications are that EUC related regulations are only payed attention to by uninformed bureaucrats like those talking to your son.

I really wouldn't be so quick to jump the gun and dump the KS18L. Sleep on it a bit and get some valued input from the French community here.