Ontario legalizing e-scooters!!! (Bird, Lime, segway, electric kickscooter, micro mobility, electric skateboards)

[mdrejhon]

Now...

I am observing the indecisive Toronto City Council moves, due to inexperience...

Even today, Toronto council is possibly making errors legally by being a bit uncertain about e-scooters to the point of defacto banning them, but that's at sabotage of ripening Toronto for bike infrastructure expansion. Nontheless, as long as it's a temporary ban to help them understand the issues better -- with an end date -- to find ways to introduce them.

Now, we're limiting to electrified kickscooters similar to Bird (not other types of micro mobility for now), one of the most compatible non-bike objects discovered in a bike lane.

Bike Infrastructure No-Brainer #1
The tone is consistent and predictable -- even cities that already have e-scooters (like or hate them) grudgingly realize that they work with least friction in bike infrastructure. Again, to be clear, talking about electric kickscooters, and not anything moped/vespa/mobility-aid that are more incompatible with bike infrastructure.

For an anti-e-scooter article, focus on:

1. Whether the city has already a downtown-wide e-scooter fleet. Not those postage stamp sized ones.
   
   
2. Whether the city has already an expanding bike infrastructure

When filtering articles, you realize that cities with (1) and (2), all those articles now start to veer unamiously to least-friction in bike infrastructure (Even those who say "we don't have enough bike infrastructure so e-scooters should be banned from our city" type of articles -- is still an implied acknowledgement by e-scooter haters). The angry monkey fist-shaking about pedestrians scared of e-scooters, the angry car driver that had a close call with an electrified kick scooters. Notice the almost-lack of disagreement about bike infrastructure by experienced cities (whether they continue or ban them)? Bingo.

Bike Infrastructure No-Brainer #2
And it's consistent with my personal experience, I am throughly infuriated by mopeds & mobility-aid scooters in my bike lane.... but I notice myself not caring about those electric kickscooters nearly as much and realized they're more-or-less only as equally annoying as "Some other cyclist in my way" and realized they're just perfectly fine being part of bike infrastructure, especially now knowing they have already caused bike-infrastructure expansion in many cities. As most smart individuals have already realized.

Bike Infrastructure No-Brainer #3
In 20 years from now, the mindset will be a lot more flexible and the bigger problem is scooters in narrow sidewalks, we gotta solve that. Automobiles may still be king out in the suburbs but downtowns are gonna still have to expand bike infrastructure -- including electrified kick scooters -- full stop zerobrainer.

Bike Infrastructure No-Brainer #4
It's so obvious that it's an easy total mic drop once you've got weeks of experience in a city with electrified kickscooters (as a car driver, as a bicyclist, as a pedestrain, and as a e-scooter user).

I don't mean a 2 or 3 day business trip. Or a postage-stamp trial like Distillery District. There are cities whose scootershare zone is massively larger than Toronto Bikeshare. And actually spending a total of a month in cities in all modes!

Do actual car renting, actual bike renting, actual pedestrianing, actual e-scootering, in cities that contains all these modes. One will tend to quickly (99% of the time) fall in line in noticing that electrified kickscooters are least annoying or least-worst-poison to the populace (as user and non-user) in bike infrastructure, whether you remain anti-escooter or not. In a coming-anyway scenario, as a scooter hater forced to choose, what is a city to do? Bingo!!! Build (clap) More (clap) Bike (clap) Infrastructure.

Bike Infrastructure No-Brainer #5
And did I say.... electric kickscooters in bike infrastructure have fewer injuries (including to others not using e-scooters!!! KEY!!!) and less annoyance including to non-users (yes, cyclist annoyance and cyclist injuries)? See previous post for statistics. They are NOT mopeds. They are NOT mobility vehicles for disabled.

Bike Infrastructure No-Brainer #6
Even 19th century dandyhorses and penny farthings created injuries before they became more compatible with infrastructure by the introduction of the Safety Bicycle (the modern two-wheel bike with pedals & brakes). Dandyhorses didn't have pedals or brakes and many cities banned them in the 19th century due to the injuries they tended to create. Anything that looked like a bike got wide-scale bans initially.

London banned everything that looked like a bicycle in 1819 (Ctrl+F search for "1819" to see the sentence).

Drais’s invention had an immediate impact, and imitations appeared in Britain and America within the year, rebranded as “hobby-horses” and “velocipedes.” The machine enjoyed a brief peak in popularity in 1819, with thousands appearing in London alone. But fears about safety—of the rider and of the pedestrian public—quickly led to bans, and the Laufsmaschine’s ubiquity waned.

Electrified kickscooters are far by, least chaotic, with bike infrastructure, with cycle tracks, and with properly marked multi-use trails (wide enough to deserve bike markings)

I feel electrified kickscooters are actually one of those "safety bicycle" boom moments or "Model T horseless carriage" boom moments. The first introduction of a mass market car. The first introduction of mass market safety bikes. Etc. These moments happen once every 25 years, once every 50 years, or once every 100 years. Seismic. Revolutionary. Cars brought chaos to horse-filled streets. Safety bikes brought chaos to muddy dirt roads full of pedestrians and horses. The modes adjust and adapt over the decades.

Almost nobody is old enough to witness two consecutive mobility revolutions (e.g. "introduction of safety bicycle" followed by "introduction of car" moments) so it's always a learning experience all over again. Even old scooters, motorcycles, electric wheelchairs, just slowly appeared into the scene, while electrified kickscooters just boomed onto the scene in several cities (some far more chaotically than others).

But in many cities, electrified kickscooters are booming onto the ground in many cities as quickly as a Model T revolution of 1920s or as quickly as a Safety Bike popularity boom of 1880s. Few have seen an equally seismic moment until the late-2010s boom of electrified kickscooters. Today, it is all happening shockingly fast, thanks to technology (speed you can pack in a backpack). How do we accomodate a new mode?

Bike Infrastructure No-Brainer #7
Battery and weight now make them slimmer-profile than a cyclist to the point where some designs feel less threatening/annoying to a cyclist than another cyclist.

Even when you're annoyed by them, pretend they're another cyclist, then you realize they're not as annoying as mopeds. Very weird feeling to see the annoyance venn-diagram start to simultaneously overlap (annoying mobility aid yelling at you) and underlap (friendly Bird scooter versus friendly cyclist), especially as I've noticed a portion of cities have a majority of scooter users responsibly using bike lane, rather than freaking car drivers or pedestrians. Pedestrians hate bikes on sidewalks too, you know.

Many cityplanners (who has not yet spent a full month trying all modes of transport in a full-downtown-zone electrified kickscooter city) don't know what the hell to make of it, thinking they're still Vespas.

TL;DR: Toronto is right to be concerned. But planning future bike infrastructure and multiuse-trail infrastructure -- without accomodation for a compatible category of appropriately sized electrified kickscooters -- is already statistically confirmed elsewhere to be a very hare-brained move according to cityplanners experienced with this chaos.

 

[W. K. Lis]

For better safety of pedestrians, let's have a flagman/flagwoman walk in front of each and every e-scooters, mopeds, e-bikes, automobiles, (insert mobility apparatus you don't like here), etc.

From link.

(Wonder if we should include the self-driving cars as well? lol)

 

[mdrejhon]

Yes, let's have flagmen in front of all self-driving cars too.

Except my Tesla Model S Plaid Edition. I don't want a flagman in front of MY OWN CAR.

(Just kidding. I only have a 2011 Hyundai)
/s

 

[Neutrino]

Saw a guy on an electric scooter in my suburban neighborhood today. He was moving at a moderately high speed and on the road. I would have felt somewhat unsafe as a pedestrian had he been on the sidewalk. Then again, it would have been roughly equivalent to a cyclist moving at the same speed. I can see the argument for allowing e scooters in bike lanes.

 

[mdrejhon]

Saw a guy on an electric scooter in my suburban neighborhood today. He was moving at a moderately high speed and on the road. I would have felt somewhat unsafe as a pedestrian had he been on the sidewalk. Then again, it would have been roughly equivalent to a cyclist moving at the same speed. I can see the argument for allowing e scooters in bike lanes.

Was the size of the scooter similiar to the more common USA electric kickscooters, about this size:

(Typical Bird electric rental units, photo from Bloomberg BusinessWeek)

(Comparison scale -- bunch of waiting at a traffic light, clearly comparing cyclists & and bike-infra-compatible electric kickscooters in the same bike lane)

That size typically maxes out at 25kph, though some cities electronically caps Bird rentals to 20kph.

Or were the ones you saw bigger than those? There are some killer scooters that goes up to 50mph (80kph) which would remain illegal in Ontario anyway with the 37kph limit. Those speeds are insanity.

 

[Neutrino]

Not sure, but I think it was the faster kind

 

[MetroMan]

These should be considered equivalent to bicycles. Under no circumstance should they be allowed on sidewalks. People on sidewalks shouldn't be worried about vehicles in their space. Children and dogs are especially vulnerable. They're unpredictable and unaware of their surroundings and less visible to riders. It's the same reason why I often hear about children and dogs hit by sidewalk cyclists.

If they're coming to Toronto, use e-scooters as a catalyst to expand the bike network. Better still, tax them and put that money into a bike network fund used to expand cycling infrastructure.

As far as the sidewalk obstacles caused by the dockless design, they should be required to be placed in designated virtual corals and upright before ending a ride. These scooters all have GPS and gyroscopes so it's possible to create drop off zones without having to install physical docks. In cities where drop it anywhere is allowed, scooters tend to build up strewn across busy street corners which isn't just an inconvenience, it's an accessibility problem.

 

[mdrejhon]

Wow! While those are the old models with the kickstand I even personally hate -- that's particularly bad.

I've seen tipped-overs in the 4 cities I visited, sometimes it was very rare in some cities, and very frequent in other cities. But never that bad personally. Max I've seen was 4 scooters clutter-piled. In some cities, they were rarely tipped over. They've got accelerometers and built in LTE radios, so they can "radio-back" when G-force is 90 degrees off-kilter, and the city can fine them (and they DO in some cities). If the cities threatens fines for tipped over scooters, the scooter do pay extra attention to tipovers if it's cheaper to right them up than to pay the fines (funny how that incentivizes a corporation).

Most tip-overs are mostly or almost-purely accidental (depending on city) rather than vandalism is that the scooters are parked on a 1-degree incline, and a small accident (or even a strong wind) tips those over. The early bird (pun intended) models had a rickety kickstand. And then they dominoe over by accident (I've domino-tipped over 2 other scooters by accident because of a rickety kickstand when parking....but I've always righted the scooters). There is an observed leap-on-the-pile mentality in throwing a scooter into an already-tipped pile, but the first tipover is typically accidental.

Also, another important detail:
-- Your scooter pile are clearly the Bird Version 0 models (I can tell, because of the distinctive bottom & exposed vandalizable brake line).
-- Today, Bird is 2 versions ahead now, with a much-more-tip-resistant kickstand.
"Industrial-grade anti-tipping kickstand" -- link

I've seen different Bird versions in different cities already. The first version of the Bird (in that photo) are modified Amazon scooters -- the same Xiaomi-branded stuff you buy on Amazon, Aliexpress or eBay. The new version is custom in-house designed. It won't be perfect, but much harder to "tip accidentally" -- which I totally appreciate because as an e-scooter visitor in 4 travel cities -- I find the old birds having a really totally shitty kickstand. So I love the new Bird kickstand; it will stay righted even when parked on a 1 degree or 2 degree incline -- especially when a scooter legal parking spot is nearby a curb ramp -- so I don't have to "balance the scooter" when I park.

CREDIT below

CREDIT added: self-highlighted version of stock photo widely supplied to press by Bird).

Fortunately, these pictured ones are the much more weatherproof ones, so these will be obviously needed for Toronto, given our big climate swings. They'll still tip over, but far less frequently into those nasty piles.

Vandalism will still occur, but most tipovers are simply accidentals -- I can attest to personal experience of watching scooters domino accidentally by my own fault (but I righted them -- responsibly). The early design was that easy to accidentally tip over and I really disliked that inconvenience. Especially when I parked 1 minute before the arrival of a surface LRT in a city I was visiting for business -- you do not want to have to spend 30 seconds trying to balance the goddamn scooter on a 1-degree incline like a rusty loose kickstand on a cheap bike. So I am totally happy they're finally using tip-resistant kickstands rather than using Amazon scooter kickstands.

With full total disdain, I stare at media articles "this cherrypicked photo is why we should unconditionally permanently pre-emptively ban them from our city before they start operating here". Some media uses this photo responsibly. "We should make sure to fine and penalize scooter companies whenever tipover-piles happens without immediate remedy by escooter companies", but other media uses it "ban e-scooters totally from our city". That's National Enquirer speil (usually often by anti-transit papers or Koch Brother league garbage stuff). If it's a pragmatic paper (understanding about transit and bike issues) then that particular uneducated media should go back to study up on modern city planning, and get one reporter to do spend the 2-week or 1-month "live in an escooter city", before writing further about e-scooters in a more balanced/pragmatic way. Stat. Full stop. The conversation deserves to exist, but not as as a pretext for pre-emptive permanently ban electrified kickscooters. Time may be needed but there are always solutions.

These should be considered equivalent to bicycles. Under no circumstance should they be allowed on sidewalks. People on sidewalks shouldn't be worried about vehicles in their space. Children and dogs are especially vulnerable. They're unpredictable and unaware of their surroundings and less visible to riders. It's the same reason why I often hear about children and dogs hit by sidewalk cyclists.

No disagreement there.
Definitely Toronto's narrow bikes-disallowed sidewalks.

In certain cities, I admit to kick-scootering on wide sidewalks in those "sidewalk-allowed" cities but I've always been respectful by keeping a wide berth (multiuse trail responsibility principles, as if I was on a bike).
I think the cities must label their sidewalks explicitly as multiuse -- the 5 meter wide ones labelled bikes-allowed for example are OK as long as the scooters are speed-limited to average bike speed (~20kph) and no bulkier than those scooters you see in the Bloomberg picture.

It's the "problem escooter users" that we need to optimize our city networks around. Design our cities so there's no excuse for them to scooter on sidewalk. That might take a while for Toronto downtown alas, but that's the proper thinking -- accomodate bikes better and we accomodate kick-style e-scooters better.

If they're coming to Toronto, use e-scooters as a catalyst to expand the bike network. Better still, tax them and put that money into a bike network fund used to expand cycling infrastructure.

I agree. A good e-scooter advocacy must factor that in.

Many cities charge fees to the e-scooter rental vendors, though not all cities reinvest the same dollar into expanded bike networks.

In fact, until cashflow problems occured, Bird actually originally pledged $1 per day per scooter to subdisize city bike lane expansions. Imagine that, a corporation unsolicitedly offering to subsidize goverment for their bike network expansion! The agreements were signed some cities, though not in newer cities. Now, alternate mechanisms such as annual licensing fees have taken over -- defacto effectively the same thing. Nontheless, the rapidly falling-cost of e-scooters and rapidly improving-durability (they're now using inhouse designed rather than modified Amazon scooters like they did originally), is creating a situation of getting gradually closer to a more cashflow-breakeven situation. The e-scooter rental companies are still generally willing to pony-up reasonable licensing fees -- in order to operate at all -- and Toronto should profit off that to reinvest in bike network improvements.

As far as the sidewalk obstacles caused by the dockless design, they should be required to be placed in designated virtual corals and upright before ending a ride. These scooters all have GPS and gyroscopes so it's possible to create drop off zones without having to install physical docks. In cities where drop it anywhere is allowed, scooters tend to build up strewn across busy street corners which isn't just an inconvenience, it's an accessibility problem.

In some cities I have visited, there was so much space between trees & between bike racks, I didn't mind them parked there as long as out of the way.

The moral hazard, which I clearly witness (and personally tempted too) is the escooter users will e-scooter on sidewalk in order to get to those parking spots. That's a conundrum about sidewalk-based e-scooter parking areas -- it's a city-specific brainstorm (sidewalk size, large number of trees/bike racks, space on road versus space on sidewalk, legalness such as multiuse-width bikes-allowed sidewalks in a specific city). I'm candidly honest there: It is temping to kickscooter on the sidewalk towards a sidewalk parking spot. Now, if you designed a city from scratch it's totally simple. But square peg, hello round hole because "Toronto".

Geofenced parking corrals marked with the scooter logo, is probably best -- as long as Toronto liberally sprinkles them all over next to existing bike racks, and maintains them so the paint doesn't disappear in two years.
Having to scooter 3 blocks just to find a parking spot is a very royal pain. And makes it harder to find the next scooter to rent, since in some cities I liked to jump all over the city ad-hoc.

I loved those cities "It's okay to legally park adjacent to any bike rack, as long as there's room". Guarantees parking less than a block away. But I see why that's iffy in Toronto. I'm willing to be forced to scooter to a Nathan-Philips corral (or a Ryerson U southwest e-scooter corral) just to visit Yonge-Dundas square, for example -- that is totally reasonable, given the problematic crowds of that area.

Either way -- Toronto will need a Toronto solution.

 

[mdrejhon]

Not sure, but I think it was the faster kind

Was it the bulk (bigger than a Lime or Bird) or the speed (faster than 25kph)?
I don't want either in my bike lane as a cyclist.

I've noticed the "Bird users rudely desires right-of-way in sidewalks" versus the "Bird users automatically respect cyclists" mentality
As pictured in that Bloomberg photo a few posts above -- bike infra sharing works really well with Birds. I've seen that realistically photoed moment in real life and been one of those riders (either as the scooterer or as the cyclist), even among older users. Birds feel more aggressive ("gangway, pedestrians!" mentalities) on sidewalks than on bike lanes -- it seems to be a psychological instinctive behaviour. Bird/Lime e-scooter users typically behave around cyclists, they balance, they tip when stopped, they know each other can swerve, they are vulnerable, they go similar speeds, "waiting-behind-you at traffic light" experience is similar unbothered feel because of all being able to quickly accelerate to similar speed. And they give each other space in a instinctive "we understand" way like bicycle-to-bicycle. It's often more e-scooter users are more threatened by cyclists (because bicycles are bigger than Bird electric kickscooters, yet Bird being able to flow at same speeds) than cyclists feeling threatened by other Birds. So the give-space mentalities in bike lanes actually works perfect. I feel like I'm writing a documentary when I write that sentence, but it's true.

Not all are pink unicorns and rainbows though. Some bike associations want to ban e-scooters but mostly it's because of fiefdom-guarding rather than actual compatibility. But in a pick-poison debate, or a debate on hard data, is done and deadhorsed in many cities conclusions: Of the three (sidewalks, roads, bike lanes), the birds are so much more civil in bike infra! Yes, users who are using sidewalks are, oftentimes, appear less respectful. Especially ones that weave in-and-out of sidewalks/bike infra. But same goes for cyclists who also weave in-and-out (those fellow cyclists I find even more annoying anyway). It's a matter of perspective so not a pretext to ban from bike infra. Now, keeping to bike infra, it's all good. This observation is that it cleverely gives an instinctive tacit welcome to Bird-type e-scooters in bike lanes by other cyclists, even if grudgingly/reluctantly and it's almost always jealously (don't use my taxpayer funded bike infra!) rather than real world compatibility.

It's not perfect, but I encounter more aggressive cyclist-in-bikelane people, than aggressive Bird-in-bikelane people as a percentage. City 1 may only have a few scooter rentals where they were rare like a suburban cyclist in a suburb bike lane. While City 2 was almost like Scooter Copenhagen so you actually get e-scooter+cyclist rush hour experience. Focussing on City 2 at peak. Even in busy cities, the respect unification is quite relatively surprisingly harmonious during the moments of bike lane. All of them wring monkey fists at pedstrians cutting in our bike lane and slow mobility users blocking full width of bike lane. Infuriating. But generally rarely bothered about each other (cyclist vs Bird, and Bird vs cyclist) any more than like (cyclist vs cyclist), and possibly less stress than cyclist-vs-cyclist because of Birds' slimmer profile (e.g. busy lanes with Birds herd more compactly at traffic lights, etc). That's the way it beautifully went.

The typical Bird electrified kickscooters are pretty much bike-infrastructure-friendly as they go. The comfort profile are clearly great, fantastic fit for bike infrastructure. Quite automatically civil between Birds/cyclists and surprisingly similar behaviours. Even when I bicycled among them.

Now, Toronto & Hamilton, a word about the bike infrastructure flaws which will inevitably cause escooters to show up on sidewalks... That's a legitimate conversation.

 

[Johnny Au]

The Belt Line (both the Central and the West sections) has a maximum speed limit of 15 km/h. It would be great if e-scooters could automatically lower its speed limit to that, but raise its speed limit outside of the Belt Line.

 

[mdrejhon]

The Belt Line (both the Central and the West sections) has a maximum speed limit of 15 km/h. It would be great if e-scooters could automatically lower its speed limit to that, but raise its speed limit outside of the Belt Line.

Automatic geofenced speed limiter capability is built-in to the programmable Bird/Lime scooters --

The city can request special geofenced speed areas as a condition for deployment. It's typically used for geofenced speeds for parks or beach or university campus -- and for limiting speeds outside main rental zone -- less often used for thin strips like trails that have underpasses/overpasses/adjacent roads. Fortunately the scooter rental companies program it a gradual slowdown for safety (when you suddenly hit a lower speed limit geofence). So it's technically possible for trails and has been done in some cities, e.g. belt parks with a trail and the belt line has lots of trees on both sides so enough buffer for GPS inaccuracies.

You can see the geofenced speed behavior when you rent a Distillery scooter (the 2019 trial), you will see them gradually slow down when you try to exit the Distillery zone since they're supposed to be confined to the District in the postage-stamp-sized trial.

 

[DSC]

Interesting piece on CNN at https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/30/tech/scooter-management/index.html

 

[W. K. Lis]

Automatic geofenced speed limiter capability is built-in to the programmable Bird/Lime scooters --

The city can request special geofenced speed areas as a condition for deployment. It's typically used for geofenced speeds for parks or beach or university campus -- and for limiting speeds outside main rental zone -- less often used for thin strips like trails that have underpasses/overpasses/adjacent roads. Fortunately the scooter rental companies program it a gradual slowdown for safety (when you suddenly hit a lower speed limit geofence). So it's technically possible for trails and has been done in some cities, e.g. belt parks with a trail and the belt line has lots of trees on both sides so enough buffer for GPS inaccuracies.

You can see the geofenced speed behavior when you rent a Distillery scooter (the 2019 trial), you will see them gradually slow down when you try to exit the Distillery zone since they're supposed to be confined to the District in the postage-stamp-sized trial.

Should have the speed limiters on all motor vehicles. So that when driving through parks, with a posted speed limit of 20 km/h, or school zones, with a posted speed limit of 30 km/h, that the vehicles will be incapable of exceeding that speed. Emergency vehicles would be exempt, only when sirens are activated.

 

[Midtown Urbanist]

I really hope this doesn't become a thing here. I was just in Lisbon and the city is such a mess of scooters these days. The already narrow sidewalks are even more impassible now. Add to that dockless bike sharing from Uber. It's just a mess.

I was just there too. They looked ridiculous on Lisbon's tight cobblestoned streets, widespread hills, and stairs. I cringed watching people's teeth rattle on the cobblestones, and get into near-collisions with pedestrians and cars on corners and on tight sidewalks. They were present on both road and sidewalk, using both interchangeably (whichever was the 'least resistance route') as downtown Lisbon does not really have bike lanes, it is mostly a pedestrian-friendly environment with small one-lane, one-direction roadways.

But Toronto is flat and all pavement. These scooters will perform very very well here in contrast, perhaps even exceeding that of Bike Share, and we have to prepare for that eventuality. I am concerned about what streets here without existing cycling infrastructure will fare with e-scooters. Again, our slow adoption of cycling infrastructure is going to bite us in the arse, as it always does.

 

[mdrejhon]

A more pragmatic article more applicable to a Canadian city:

Lime users report new speed, parking restrictions on e-scooters

Fans of Calgary’s Lime e-scooters have reported experiencing speed restrictions while travelling in certain parts of the city this week, and a reduced area where th…

calgarysun.com

(Geofencing is now being pushed in Calgary to try to tame things a bit there.)

They are working extremely well in Calgary according to the city, with over one million km by e-scooters rentals total, in over 150K rides.

Injuries are indeed a noted concern. Injuries are lower in bike infra than on road infra and sidewalk infra, so it will be interesting to see how Calgary modifies bike infrastructure planning.