The City of Montreal plans to hand out hefty fines to riders who fail to properly park their electric scooters and bikes.
Users will be slapped with a $50 ticket if they are caught in the act of violating parking guidelines under new rules, which are expected to be adopted by city council next month.
Both Uber and Lime, the companies behind the electric-vehicle-sharing services that were launched in the city this summer, will also face penalties of up to $100 for illegally parked vehicles.
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The impending changes, announced on Friday by Éric Alan Caldwell, the city’s executive committee member in charge of transit and urban planning, came as the city provided an update on how the pilot project is going.
Electric scooters and bikes have been popular with Montrealers since they hit the market, according to numbers released by the city. A total of 168,141 trips were taken between Aug. 13 and Sept. 10.
Uber-owned JUMP bikes average nearly 1,700 trips per day. An average of 1,570 trips have been made on a daily basis with Lime’s e-scooters, which arrived in Montreal in mid-August.
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As part of tightening the regulations, the city hopes riders will pay more attention to street signs and parking restrictions.
In July, Caldwell called on Montrealers to dock their e-bikes to the proper racks or labelled posts as required. He said at the time there were too many displaced JUMP bikes around the city.
The tightened regulations will likely come into effect on Oct. 21, when they are expected to be adopted by city council. The pilot project, which kicked off this summer, will come to an end on Nov. 15.
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— With files from Global News’ Alessia Simona Maratta
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