Ontarians will soon have another option to get around besides a pricey Uber, crowded transit or the dreaded shoelace express (walking, that is).
The province announced Wednesday that electric scooters will hit the roads at the start of 2020 and stay on for a five-year pilot project. The Ministry of Transportation says it’s part of a plan to help “businesses expand” and offer people more ways to “get around safely.”
“It’s a cool new way for people to get from point A to point B in their communities,” said Vijay Thanigasalam, parliamentary assistant to Ontario’s minister of transportation, while riding one of the electric scooters in a video announcement.
Scooter-sharing ride systems saw a boom in 2018. People can rent the vehicles — essentially those razor scooters from your childhood, but with an engine and better hardware — for small periods of time to ride from one docking station to another. They’re cheaper than Ubers and Lyfts and easier than biking.
Some Ontarians are pretty stoked to finally be able to scooter down their streets, especially because the province is late to the game. Bird and Lime Canada, two electric scooter companies trying to set up shop across the country, have already operated in Calgary, Edmonton and Montreal. Waterloo, Ont. ran a pilot that started in June and ended in August.
But the electric scooter craze hasn’t exactly been a smooth ride in those cities. The City of Waterloo decided not to renew its contract with Lime Canada and is still mulling whether they want them back.
In Edmonton, scooters opened a rift between riders and pedestrians when people started riding them on sidewalks. Edmontonians (presumably unsatisfied customers) also started burning them.
The scooters are also notorious for being haphazardly discarded. When Lime rolled out in Montreal, people found scooters abandoned in the middle of the street, in subway stations and even dropped in canals.
The problem, which has plagued cities across the world, even birthed an Instagram account called “birdgraveyard” that chronicles abandoned e-scooters.
But arsonists aren’t the only problem e-scooters have to fare with; when Canadian winters fill the streets with ice and snow, there’s not much use for low-power locomotion. Calgary’s already pulled its scooters off the streets and will put them back in March when the weather clears.
In its announcement, the ministry didn’t address what would happen to the scooters during unrideable winter months. But it has laid out safety standards municipalities have to abide by: scooters can only travel at a maximum speed of 24 km/h, can’t go on highways and must have a light in the front and rear of the vehicle with reflective material on the sides.
Also, squash any fantasies about scooting around with your pet or a friend: No passengers or cargo allowed. And no, you can’t get away with putting your pup in a basket, either: No baskets allowed!
And you absolutely can’t do this, no matter how handy it is.
The lime green scooters will be allowed to hit provincial roads by Jan. 1 and municipal roads depending on when municipalities pass bylaws allowing them.