If enacted this would change the look of a lot of cities. On the other hand I can't help thinking of China's bicycle graveyards.*
From the Washington Post, November 17:
Wander through the streets of a major city in Europe or North America, and there is a good chance you’ll eventually stumble upon a flock of brightly colored electric scooters, arranged in more or less orderly fashion, waiting for riders.
For some, e-scooters for rent are an eyesore, liable to cause accidents on and off the sidewalk. For others, they symbolize convenience, and are a welcome alternative to cars.
This polarization is especially evident in Paris, which is undergoing a major transformation led by its mayor, Anne Hidalgo, with the aim of reclaiming public space from roads and vehicles to make the city more livable.Now, Hidalgo is faced with a stark choice: Politicians from several parties are calling on her to ban e-scooters from the city when their operators’ contracts end in February 2023. Meanwhile, Lime, Dott and Tier — the three companies licensed to operate scooters in Paris — say they are helping the city achieve its environmental targets. She is expected to make a decision in the coming weeks, according to one of her deputies, David Belliard.
“We are asking ourselves about the cost-benefit ratio of these machines,” he told The Washington Post, citing congestion, safety and insufficient evidence of their environmental benefits.Any decision made in Paris could have global ramifications: While many cities around the world, including New York and D.C., have expanded the use of the scooters, many are also passing legislation to rein in the micromobility industry....
....MUCH MORE
And from the Guardian, May 1, 2018:
....MUCH MORE
That'll boost GDP in a Keynesian sort of way:
"If the Treasury were to fill old bottles with banknotes, bury them at suitable depths in disused coalmines which are then filled up to the surface with town rubbish, and leave it to private enterprise on well-tried principles of laissez-faire to dig the notes up again (the right to do so being obtained, of course, by tendering for leases of the note-bearing territory), there need be no more unemployment and, with the help of the repercussions, the real income of the community, and its capital wealth also, would probably become a good deal greater than it actually is. It would, indeed, be more sensible to build houses and the like; but if there are political and practical difficulties in the way of this, the above would be better than nothing."
