Vancouver councillors to debate e-scooter-sharing pilot program

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – You may be able to zip around Vancouver on an e-scooter this fall, if one city councillor gets her way.

A pilot program is being considered at City Hall on Tuesday. It comes after other Canadian cities, like Calgary, have already embraced the technology.

“It’s quite a bit faster than walking speed, obviously,” Tom Ross, a reporter with our sister station 660 NEWS in Calgary, says. “People are using them to go and get groceries and stuff like that, you know, loading up their bags on the handle bars.”

He says e-scooters have been in Calgary for two years and some people do complain about safety on the sidewalks.

“These things can rip around, around 15 kilometres an hour,” he explains, adding many people rent them on Friday and Saturday nights after drinking at the bar, posing another concern.

Related article: E-scooter pilot will give Vancouverites socially distant transit option, councillor says

Ross adds they’re quick, easy to access, relatively affordable, and can — in the case of Calgary — be used on the sidewalk or in the bike lane.

Vancouver City Councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung would like to see the pilot program start as soon as this fall.

The City of Vancouver’s current plan is for a pilot project allowing privately-owned scooters on public streets, but Kirby-Yung says a scooter-sharing program will allow more people to test out a new transportation option.

“I think with COVID-19 it’s become more important to have choice for people. People are afraid to get back on transit with health concerns and we don’t want everybody to default to getting back into cars or see our car congestion grow. Scooters do provide another choice for people,” she said last week. “This is our opportunity now, with COVID, to shape people’s travel habits and I think it’s a moment in time when we’re really thinking about how we use our public space and how people get around.”

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