E-bikes

[Monarch Butterfly]

From https://itdp.org/multimedia/e-bikes-e-scooters-drivers-of-climate-action/

 

[Midtown Hank]

I understand there were concerns some time ago about the company Bird (e-scooter sharing company) and the issue with scooters being left in various locations, blocking sidewalks, etc., but it strikes me that e-scooters are a tremendous solution to the last mile issue in regards to urban transportation. They are much smaller than a bike and actually take up less space when parked. I think the city outlawed taking them on the TTC as there were concerns about fire safety, but surely that has to be solvable. I do see some scooters zipping around (sometimes recklessly) but that can be said for any mode of transport. I actually quite perplexed as to why they haven't become more popular?

 

[BrenWilson]

Bird has a contract here in Hamilton, they do get fairly well used but the parking/storage situation is bad. You end up with scooters cabled to any post in the sidewalk, often falling over. I can only imagine in busier areas of toronto this would be magnitudes worse. A docked solution, like bikeshare, is really the only viable option for a scooter-share program. There's also just a general lack of enforcement with e-scooters and e-bikes (and cars, dont @ me), many don't comply with the pedal or speed requirements and ride on the sidewalk. The best solution would be more roadspace for micromobility but we all know how much of a political battle that as become.

 

[Midtown Hank]

Article on the subject in the April issue of Maclean's. Discusses all the issues, but doesn't draw any conclusions. My take is that they should be allowed; mandatory helmet, max speed 20K in bike lanes and 10K on sidewalks. Not allowed on major arterials. As for the sidewalk clutter from rentals- mandatory drop off & pick locations.

 

[TRONto]

I understand there were concerns some time ago about the company Bird (e-scooter sharing company) and the issue with scooters being left in various locations, blocking sidewalks, etc., but it strikes me that e-scooters are a tremendous solution to the last mile issue in regards to urban transportation. They are much smaller than a bike and actually take up less space when parked. I think the city outlawed taking them on the TTC as there were concerns about fire safety, but surely that has to be solvable. I do see some scooters zipping around (sometimes recklessly) but that can be said for any mode of transport. I actually quite perplexed as to why they haven't become more popular?

Although bike share isn't there yet to cover the whole city. I feel the e-scooter sharing program is a bit of a disaster wherever they go (when no docks). It's visual pollution everywhere and blocking sidewalks. If we can't have delivery robots because of accessibility issues regarding our sidewalks, then the city can't say we can have e-scooters either.
I'm ok if personal e-scooters are legalized and are using bike lanes.

 

[reaperexpress]

Article on the subject in the April issue of Maclean's. Discusses all the issues, but doesn't draw any conclusions. My take is that they should be allowed; mandatory helmet, max speed 20K in bike lanes and 10K on sidewalks. Not allowed on major arterials. As for the sidewalk clutter from rentals- mandatory drop off & pick locations.

The speed limit for e-scooters in Ontario is already 24 km/h. Limiting them to 20 km/h in bike lanes would be an imperceptably small difference. I commute by bicycle in Ottawa (where e-scooters are legal and common) and the e-scooters already travel at the same speed as bicycles anyway.

E-scooters are not allowed on sidewalks but the way that usually gets enforced in shared scooter systems is that they use the GPS position to limit them to 10 km/h when they're in a pedestrian area. Unfortunately due to the lack of precision in the GPS position this only works for pedestrian areas relatively far from a road or bike path - it doesn't work for sidewalks next to a road or path.

https://www.ontario.ca/page/electric-kick-style-scooters-e-scooters

Bird has a contract here in Hamilton, they do get fairly well used but the parking/storage situation is bad. You end up with scooters cabled to any post in the sidewalk, often falling over. I can only imagine in busier areas of toronto this would be magnitudes worse. A docked solution, like bikeshare, is really the only viable option for a scooter-share program. There's also just a general lack of enforcement with e-scooters and e-bikes (and cars, dont @ me), many don't comply with the pedal or speed requirements and ride on the sidewalk.

Hamilton also has a demonstration of how to effectively implement free-roaming shared micromobility without creating a mess of improperly parked vehicles. In Hamilton Bikehsare, the bikes can technically be left anywhere, but they discourage people from doing that by charging a small fee when locking a bike outside of a designated bikeshare bike rack ("hub") and give people a rebate if they move a bike from a non-designated location to a designated rack.

Looking at the map right now, only 45 out of 900 bicycles are parked outside of a hub, and hopefully most of those 45 are still parked properly in some kind of bike rack or bike post.

The best solution would be more roadspace for micromobility but we all know how much of a political battle that as become.

Expanding the range of people who can use cycling infrastructure makes it easier to justify dedicating roadway space for it. On that note I have two issues with the current e-scooter regulations: the maximum wheel size and the requirement to not have a seat. Larger wheels and seats don't make a vehicle any more dangerous, in fact they make them safer by increasing stability and lowering the centre of gravity, respectively. The current regulations needlessly prohibit vehicles like the Honda Motocompacto, which meet all Ontario requirements for an e-scooter except the requirement to not have a seat: