Following an unanimous vote at the City council meeting last week, we will again see the ride sharing scheme back on our pathways this year, but with a few new rules attached.
- Each scooter will have a highly visible identification number
- A cap of 1,500 e-scooters
- Operate on low speed / low volume roads that don’t have traffic lines
- Pay a per-scooter permit fee (that will cover parking)
- A 15 cent fee per trip will be applied
There were three operators in the City in 2020, Lime, Bird and Roll. Calgary was the first Canadian city to reach 1 million shared e-scooter rides and according to one operator, Calgary uses their scooters more than anywhere else in the world.
Hopefully, with this new permanent user addition to the city’s pathway systems, it will enable the city to review the volume of use for widening popular routes and expand connectivity to all of our communities. Seeing these devices operate in our communities outside of the city centre may be a welcoming site!
Are they still going to be allowed on sidewalks? Given the speed and poor handling of these machines, busyside walks make for accidents waiting to happen.