Electric scooters have become an increasingly common sight in the Halifax region over the last few years. But as the number of devices and riders rise, so have calls for further regulation.
The municipality is expecting a bylaw to be presented to council in the coming weeks regarding the devices.
“The concerns from people on the street and the sidewalk is fast-moving scooters on sidewalks and people weaving in and out of traffic without helmets on,” said Waye Mason, councillor for Halifax’s District 7.
Mason said he’s hearing from staff that a preliminary bylaw is expected to be presented in June, with more extensive details surrounding micro-mobility regulations to follow afterward.
Max Rastelli, the owner of HFX e-Scooters, which currently has about 90 scooters located throughout the peninsula, said he was the first to introduce the devices to the city in 2019.
He said for the first three years, he established pick-up and return locations that proved to be effective as most riders were only using the devices recreationally. Now, more and more appear to be using them for commuting purposes.
“The vast majority of people are using them to get to places, to get to work, to get home, to go run an errand, and the way I can tell that is the average length of a ride is getting shorter and shorter and people are not leaving them where they picked them up,” he said.
“So, they’re now scattered all over the city.”
On April 27, a presentation from CNIB (Canadian National Institute for the Blind) to the city’s Transportation Standing Committee raised concerns on behalf of pedestrians, blind, and partially sighted people.
One of their biggest issues was people riding and leaving scooters in the middle of sidewalks, which have become tripping hazards for some people.
“Designated parking areas in our view are a must,” said Lui Greco, manager of regulatory affairs at CNIB, said during last month’s meeting. “These areas must be detectable by someone who is blind by using both high-coloured contrast delineations and tactile markings so that when you’re navigating a sidewalk or street, you know that they’re there.”
In response, Mason, who also serves as the chair of the committee, said he would speak to the chief of Halifax Regional Police to get more enforcement on keeping the devices off sidewalks.
“It’s not fair that we’re still having that discussion with you when it’s already been determined that they can’t be on sidewalks,” he said during the meeting.
Addressing the problem of sidewalk-riding
Following CNIB’s presentation to the council last week, Rastelli said he sent a list to the HRM to clarify “everything they’re doing to address riding and parking on sidewalks.”
Some of the initiatives mentioned were the placement of stickers on scooters telling people to not ride on sidewalks and block walking spaces when parking, the hiring of more staff and the addition of another truck to do regular patrols and place scooters into bike racks, and the ability to contact “problem riders” and ban them from renting scooters through their app.
He said HFX e-Scooters has also introduced a new feature this week where a voice message plays when it’s unlocked to remind riders not to park on sidewalks.
Bylaw concerns
Rastelli said one of his concerns is that the bylaw will create limited designated parking locations that will make it more difficult for people to use the scooters as a means of transportation.
“That could add a significant cost for us, the operator, to put in the infrastructure, or cost to the city and the taxpayer to put in these parking locations and infrastructure,” he said.
He added he believes bike racks are currently one of the best places to park devices.
Rastelli said that one of the issues that e-scooters aim to solve for commuters is the “first mile, last mile” problem. He says the devices eliminate the time that someone would spend walking to and from the bus stop, as the devices allow for a rider to be taken directly to their destination.
“If the city comes out with these designated parking locations, it’s no different than a bus stop,” he said, “People should be able to take it to the front door of their house, just don’t park on a sidewalk, put it in a bike rack,” he said.
When Mason was asked if designated parking spots for the scooters will be introduced, he said it is “pretty likely.”
“Where scooters are probably going to be allowed to be parked is wherever bikes are allowed to be parked, you can’t just leave a bike on a sidewalk.” he continued.
“If the ‘last mile’ is what this is all about, that’s great, but the places where people are scooting need to have bike parking and they need to have that available for scooters so it’s out of the way.”
After about years since the introduction of the scooters, the province made an amendment to the Motor Vehicles Act in April 2022, which saw the first regulations made towards the use of e-scooters.
“The proposed amendments include a minimum age of 14 to use e-scooters, a maximum permitted speed of 32 km/h, helmet requirements, and other operation restrictions,” a release from the province said at the time.
It noted that municipalities will have the capability to set a lower speed limit, as well as decide if the electronic scooters will be permitted on roads, sidewalks, or shared sidewalks.
“I’m a fan of dropping that (speed limit) to 25 or maybe even as slow as 20, I know it’s 20 in some cities I’ve been to,” Rastelli said.
Looking ahead
Rastelli said he’s confident that the city and riders are going to “figure it out.”
“We’re going to look back years from now and not look at these things any differently than how we feel about bicycles, you can trust me on that one,” he said.
He said one of his worries is the city making a move to “outright ban” the devices.
“I think they’re considering it,” he said.
“If our riders don’t smarten up, there is a possibility that the city would ban them outright. … We’re trying to get that message across as well, to please be courteous. This is a valuable service that I think we’re bringing to the city.”
When asked if the city would consider imposing a ban on electronic scooters, Mason said that could only happen if people continued riding without helmets and leaving the devices on sidewalks.
“There is a point where you throw up your hands and say, ‘I’m not willing to continue to spend money trying to do enforcement on this,’” he said.
“I think we’re a long way away from that.”
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