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,” one in every of them mentioned with out stopping.

Mr. Hadjoudj, 18, had been employed by the three electrical scooter rental corporations 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 in style with youngsters — has develop into a subject of grownup fury, delight and pressure.

Metropolis Corridor calls them a menace to public security and environmentally questionable, and needs them gone. The rental corporations 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 turn out to be useful at night time once you get out of a celebration and miss the final metro to get dwelling,” mentioned Axel Ottow, 20, stepping out of a subway station. However whereas he mentioned he used them on uncommon events when no higher possibility was out there, he identified a generally citied downside: He discovered them “harmful to experience.”

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 very best for short-distance journeys. Many bike lanes had already been put in, providing paths away from vehicles. And vacationers, who turned out to be main purchasers, might get in some extra 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 the earth.

However at the very least initially, the machines created chaos, with many riders zooming wherever and nevertheless they wished — on sidewalks, down one-way streets, weaving between vehicles.

“It was an city jungle,” mentioned David Belliard, the deputy mayor in control of transportation.

The electrical scooters might race as much as 19 miles an hour and have been parked wherever and in all places — 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 have been deemed motorized autos and forbidden to journey on sidewalks. Their most pace was diminished to about 12 miles an hour and even decrease close to colleges, and particular parking areas have been created. Town launched a high-quality of 135 euros, or $147, for driving on sidewalks or carrying a cuddling passenger on the autos meant for one, which had develop into a romantic Parisian cliché.

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

“Since that preliminary interval of chaos, we have now seen an unimaginable quantity of enchancment in our service,” mentioned Erwann Le Web page, a spokesman for Tier, who mentioned the corporate offered scooters in cities and cities throughout France, together with different cities like Lyon and Bordeaux. Operators say that they made the autos 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 modifications, the variety of deadly accidents has elevated together with scooters’ recognition.

In 2021, 24 individuals have been killed in France whereas driving a private or rental scooter or different motorized gadgets like hoverboards and gyropods, and 413 have been critically injured, in accordance with figures offered by the State Highway Security Division. Final 12 months, 34 individuals died and 570 have been critically injured within the nation. Accidents on scooters have develop into “a significant well being downside,” the French Nationwide Academy of Drugs mentioned.

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

With 20 million journeys taken final 12 months, nevertheless, it’s apparent that a large variety of riders settle for the hazard. For scooter riders, helmets are really helpful however not required by legislation, and the Nationwide Academy of Drugs has mentioned that nationally, “in severe crashes, helmets weren’t worn 9 out of 10 occasions.”

For the staff of the scooter corporations, 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 alternative however to fireside me,” mentioned Salifou Kaba, 26, a Tier worker whose job is to experience round Paris on an electrical cargo bike to vary the scooters’ batteries. The job has introduced him a greater place to stay, financial institution mortgage approvals and stability, he mentioned. “That’s why I’m afraid of Sunday’s outcomes,” Mr. Kaba mentioned.

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

The autos “helped cut back air pollution in about 600 cities on the earth, together with 100 in France,” mentioned Mr. Le Web page, pointing to a city-sponsored research that confirmed that 19 p.c of scooter journeys would have in any other case been made by automobile.

That very same research, nevertheless, 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 automobile,” countered Mr. Belliard, a member of France’s Inexperienced occasion. “However an enormous majority would have used modes of transportation which can be already decarbonized.”

Nationwide, greater than 750,000 electrical scooters have 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 deliver the brand new transportation option to the French capital, is now eager to see it gone. As an alternative of banning the scooters outright, Ms. Hidalgo and her deputies determined to let the general public vote within the referendum. A current ballot confirmed that 70 p.c would vote towards preserving them.

If Tier, Lime and Dott lose Sunday’s vote, their contracts with town is not going to be renewed, and the scooters’ zigzagging presence in Paris might be passed by the tip of August.

The operators have mounted a marketing campaign in favor of preserving 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 have been too restrictive, excluding individuals 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,” mentioned Olivier Guntzberger, 45, an electronics salesman. Outdoors his storefront on a slim road close to the Champs-Élysées, 20 scooters have been piled in a parking house. “I’m not going to cry over them,” he mentioned.

Catherine Porter contributed reporting.