Paris has threatened to ban e-scooters if users do not obey speed limits and other rules after a pedestrian was hit and killed by two hit-and-run drivers.

There are about 15,000 for-hire vehicles in the city that can travel at speeds of up to 20 km/h (12 mph) with a driver on roads or cycle paths.

Critics say these rules are unlikely to be enforced and abandoned scooters are often found scattered on pavements and squares.

“Either the situation improves significantly and scooters find their place in public areas without causing problems, in particular for pedestrians, or we are studying getting rid of them completely,” Deputy Mayor David Belliard, who is in charge of transport, said late Tuesday night.

“Other cities have done it,” he said, referring to the Paris suburb of Issy-les-Moulineaux, as well as New York and Barcelona.

Police on Saturday charged a nurse with intentional homicide in connection with a collision earlier this month with a 32-year-old Italian woman living in Paris who was chatting with friends on a beach by the Seine when she was hit.

The driver and passenger of the same scooter fled the scene and were found after a 10-day search.

The woman’s death, which has led to at least three e-scooter-related deaths in Paris since 2019, has reignited debate over whether such devices should be allowed on city streets.

Belliard said he had called the CEOs of three e-scooter companies – Lime, Dott and Tier – to tell them he had received “lots of negative feedback about scooters on sidewalks, the sense of insecurity, and scooters abandoned in the streets”.

Their contracts, which bring in nearly a million euros ($1.2 million) a year to city coffers, run until October 2022, when they are in danger of not being renewed, Belliard said.

He added that as of Wednesday, operators must ensure the scooters do not travel faster than 10 miles per hour in several “low-speed zones” in central Paris, including the popular Place de la République and Place de la Bastille, where the city recently established large pedestrian zones.

The driver can set a speed brake that is automatically activated when the scooter enters slow traffic zones programmed into the GPS device.