Vancouver shared e-scooters could hit the streets this summer

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Following in the tracks of many other world cities, Vancouver could roll out its own shared electric scooter network by this summer.

Next week, Vancouver city staff will seek council’s approval on bylaw changes to enable a shared e-scooter pilot project, aiming to launch by June.

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These vehicles are “becoming a part of our cities now,” said ABC Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung, who introduced the 2022 motion calling for a shared e-scooter program, prompting the staff report going to council next week. “They are here to stay. People are looking for more climate-friendly, cost-effective ways to get around.”

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This kind of electric kick scooter, sometimes called “micromobility,” has become an increasingly common transportation method in recent years in cities around North America and the world. E-scooters have been zipping around Vancouver since a provincial pilot started in 2021, allowing the use of privately owned scooters in certain B.C. cities.

But not everyone is able or wants to buy their own e-scooter, Kirby-Yung said, so her motion aims to build a shared network for the vehicles where riders can pick them up in one place, scoot across town, and drop them off somewhere else, not unlike the shared bike and car services that have become popular in Vancouver in recent years.

The report going to city council next week says that the use of e-scooters has continued to increase since the start of the provincial pilot in 2021, with the number on Vancouver bike routes increasing by 25 per cent year over year.

After a request for proposals late last year, the city has selected an operator for its shared e-scooter program, said Lon LaClaire, Vancouver’s general manager of engineering services. City staff are expected to present the selected operator to council in the coming months.

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A shared e-scooter network could be “another part of the solution” to help people get around while leaving their cars at home, helping the city reduce both congestion and emissions, LeClaire said.

“They help us with our transportation challenge: as we add another 100,000 people to the city, we always have to look at how we can move more people on the same amount of road,” LeClaire said. “Walk, bike and transit has always been the solution. And the privately owned vehicle has been a challenge, because they use so much road space and move so few people.”

Currently, e-scooters are only allowed on Vancouver’s minor streets and protected bike lanes. The proposed bylaw amendments going to council next week would allow scooters on all city streets with a posted speed limit of 50km or less.

This would align with policies in some cities around North America, including Montreal, Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago, and New York as well as Coquitlam and Kelowna, according to a jurisdictional review completed by Vancouver staff and attached to this week’s report. Some other cities, however, do not allow e-scooters on major streets with 50km speed limits, including Calgary, Richmond, and North Vancouver.

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E-scooters are not without their detractors. Toronto is one major North American city that does not allow e-scooters on streets, sidewalks or bike lanes. CityNews reported in January that despite the ban, seniors and people with disabilities still found they were common enough to pose hazards when scooting around, and accessibility barriers when parked on sidewalks.

With a reported 1.2 million riders in 2021, Paris had what was described as the most-used e-scooter rental fleet in the world. But the vehicles were also linked to injuries and accidents, with Paris’ deputy mayor telling Le Monde the “anarchy” associated with e-scooters had become “quite unbearable.” Last September, following a referendum on e-scooters, the French capital became the first in Europe to completely outlaw the vehicles from its streets.

LeClaire said Vancouver staff are “very aware” of problems some other cities have seen, and are confident they can avoid them here.

“We have to address things like equity, sidewalk safety, clutter, user safety, all the things people have identified as reasons to get rid of these things,” he said.

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