It could be that what can turn e-scooters from an amenity to a menace is tourism.
Malmö would hardly be on the map as an international touristic destination. This means that e-scooter users are mostly locals. Which in turns means (a) that e-scooters would typically be a complementary mean of personal mobility, (b) there will be relatively few e-scooters.
Paris OTOH, is #1 city tourist destination in the world. It also happens to have a lot of car traffic. This (a) makes moving with an e-scooter convenient, (b) makes deploying a huge number of e-scooters for-rent a very lucrative business, (c) the number of e-scooters is inflated to cater to the tourist clientele. Add to this that many tourists may be unfamiliar with Parisian traffic and norms, and you have a recipe for disaster.
Each time I stop, as a pedestrian, to wait for a traffic light to turn green, grumbling Parisians walk around me and cross the street with complete disregard for the red light. (I'm not sure I've ever even seen a Parisian pedestrian waiting for a traffic light. They might wait for traffic to clear a bit, but not until there's a green light.)
So to me, it looks like the locals have zero respect for traffic rules. Therefore I'm not surprised that new modes of transport come with a lot of problems.
Disregarding red pedestrian traffic lights is the norm in France, they are seen as indicative: green means you can pass regardless of traffic as you have absolute priority, red means you must pay attention to cars but you are still allowed to cross and the law supports that. "Jaywalking" doesn't exist in France and pedestrians can basically cross wherever and whenever they want (it's a bit more complicated than that, but not by much).
Cars do have priority when traffic lights are red for pedestrians but they would still be held responsible for any accident.
Thus, it seems to me that your impression stems from ignorance of French traffic law and norms, as the parent said. Visiting a foreign country and thinking all rules are the same as they are at home is always a recipe for disappointment.
Like, now that I live in Belgium I know that red for cars means that one or two cars will probably still go through the intersection and I shouldn't cross (as a pedestrian or a driver) without paying attention. That's not the case in France and I could think that Belgians (or at least the Flemish, don't know about the rest) "have a total disregard for traffic rules" but that's not true, it's just one difference that you have to be aware of.
The "code the la route" article R413-38 says otherwise:
Lorsque la traversée d'une chaussée est réglée par ces feux, les piétons ne doivent s'engager qu'au feu vert.
https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/codes/article_lc/LEGIARTI0000...
The law also says that pedestrians can be fined all of 4 euros for crossing at red and they have no responsibility in the case of an accident, which means in practice there are no consequences for crossing at red. As long as you check that you aren't going to be run over by a car, which people do. They cross at red if there are no cars.
I imagine they know their city quite well, and suspect many of those traffic lights hinder rather than help pedestrians. Tourists on scooters, on the other hand, don't know the city as well as them, won't know its unwritten rules, and are quite likely to mess up traffic (like you did while waiting for a light to turn green).
This is how normal people use lights in the rest of the world.
If it is green walk. If it is red - look around and if it is reasonably safe walk.
Jaywalking is not a rule or anything like it. The UK highway Code has recently been changed so that pedestrians have right od way over cars turning into a side street (although not if controlled by traffic lights)
I am Belgian. In the smaller Belgian cities that I frequent, pedestrians seem to wait for traffic lights.
Admittedly that is not the case in Brussels. Maybe it is a big city thing.
You're generalizing too much and making exact same mistake you're complaining about. Also jaywalking and going on the red light are not the same.
Here in Poland:
* you would get a ticket if police sees you crossing a pedestrian crossing on red light * you would also get one if there is pedestrian crossing near you(100m) and you don't use it while crossing * no crossing nearby ? You can pass unless it is something like a highway. You don't get priority in this case.
The problem though, if taken to extremes would be to ban any form of car-rental (tourists are unfamiliar with the streets) and bike rental for similar reasons.
I would add though, that it's possible to gate these things and the scooter companies seem willing to do it; in the US for example I couldn't use an e-scooter because the app wouldn't accept my European driving license. (and you must have a driving license to use them in California)
When the scooters first came on the scene there was a lot of gnashing of teeth, the strangest position were the vandals who would see a well parked scooter, kick it over, causing it to be across the sidewalk, and then go around complaining about the scooters being in the way. Anyway the furor has largely calmed down, who knows what exactly did it, but I suspect a large piece of it is simply people hating change and now they've come to accept it, and even use them sometimes.
> who would see a well parked scooter, kick it over, causing it to be across the sidewalk, and then go around complaining about the scooters being in the way.
I wonder why cities prefer to go against the tech companies rather than the criminals vandalizing public property.
Anyways here in SF it's unlikely the DA would actually prosecute criminals.
The end result is that e-scooters are now accumulating in the water with a growing concern among researchers about what will happen once those batteries start to break down.
Similar situation happened where someone kept throwing outdoor chairs into the canal from Biraria (a restaurant located near the canal in Malmo)[0], the municipality made them pay for it and it sent them out of business (those trawlers are expensive).
Tugg, the place that leases the space now; has insurance for this.
I don't see these cases as dissimilar.
The two issues are however related. Commercial operations need to pay external costs imposed on the city from commercial activity, be that parking issues or water pollution. If companies refuse to do so it will be up to the citizen to decide if they want those costs be paid through taxes, or issue regulations that may force those companies to go out of business. Either way someone will have to pay for cleanup. Right now no one is doing that in Malmö and other Swedish cities, which is not sustainable.
This simply creates a very blurry line between spared spaces. It's not surprising that e-scooters simply ride on the sidewalk and are a hasard, when the motorcycles themselves also do.
The other problem is the streets are old and often have brick sections. ok if you're a car, annoying on a bike, almost unbearable with the small wheels of the scooters. Often they ride on the sidewalk with is a but less bumpy.
Pedestrians and Bikes are a poor mix.
Bikes and Cars are a poor mix.
but scooters and bikes seem to mix quite well.
Malmo, Sweden; where I live, has excellent cycling infrastructure and the scooter "problem" is really miniscule. There are still issues, people parking in stupid ways or taking scooters into pedestrian areas, but overall there are significantly more dangerous drivers who hit the accelerator as hard as they can to reach the next red-light so that they can make the most noise possible.
I have also noticed that there are a contingent of people who despise anyone having anything nice, and will throw the scooters into the canals, spray their QR codes, intentionally destroy the stands (which means they can't be parked reasonably) and, worse in my opinion, moving the scooters away from where they are safely parked and placing them across the sidewalk, which makes the previous rider look like an arse.
The scooter companies try to combat this, but their combating sometimes has the inverse affect[0]. One thing has always been true though: you have to take a photo when you park so that your parking can be validated.
[0]: https://blog.dijit.sh/enforcement-can-have-the-inverse-effec...