After a successful summer launch, Calgary’s Lime and Bird electric scooters have been removed from city sidewalks for the winter.
The City of Calgary said back in September that the e-scooters, which are only allowed to operate on sidewalks, would be temporarily removed from November until March 16 because of snow and ice.
The removal of the e-scooters will no doubt leave a number of Calgarians disappointed, as the pilot program has been a hit since it launched in July.
According to the city, the 500 e-scooters that were introduced during the Calgary Stampede were so popular it was actually a top-10 North American launch for Lime.
As for the overall usage numbers throughout the duration of the program, City of Calgary spokesperson Andrew Sedor says those too are staggering.
“Thus far through the pilot, there’s been 950,000 rides and 150 unique users,” Sedor said.
Despite a great number of Calgarians welcoming the e-scooters, plenty of safety concerns were raised, including complaints of riders operating scooters without a helmet, riding them on the street rather than the sidewalk and interfering with pedestrians.
In September, the city launched a public survey that targeted those who have used the e-scooters and those who haven’t, in the hopes of learning more how they can improve the 16-month pilot and if it should be a permanent fixture.
According to Sedor, the process of analyzing the data in the now-closed survey is already underway.
A full report on the results of the survey is scheduled to be released on Dec. 18, and the city plans to re-launch the scooters in March 2020, weather permitting.
Lime’s dockless e-bikes, which can be used on Calgary streets, are still available but will be removed on Dec. 1.