PARIS: The boulevards of Paris, already bustling with a dizzying range of transport devices, are set to feature a new shared electric scooter system that has swept the US and is now heading for Europe.

California-based Lime launched a pilot scheme for the two-wheeled powered scooters on Thursday in several districts of the French capital and will roll them out across the city.

The US start-up, which already operates bike-sharing schemes in Berlin and Frankfurt, has big ambitions in Europe as it competes with other fast-expanding American rivals such as Bird.

The Lime scooters in Paris will have a top speed of 24 kilometres an hour and are able to travel 50 kilometres on a single charge. All the vehicles, which have a GPS and can be reserved using a mobile phone app, will be collected each evening by Lime and recharged.

Published in Dawn, June 22nd, 2018