Ottawa eyed by dockless scooter-sharing company with controversial history in States
Trevor Oattes, Ottawa Citizen
Updated: March 27, 2019
A scooter-sharing company that has courted controversy in the U.S. could become the newest method of public transportation in Ottawa by the end of the year, as long as provincial laws are changed to accommodate the vehicles.
Lime, a California-based transportation company formerly known as LimeBike, allows users to rent electric scooters that are available through the Lime app. A single ride costs a $1 flat fee plus 30 cents per minute, which is paid through the app.
One of the key selling points of the service is that the scooters are dockless, which means they can be left parked wherever the user decides to end their ride. From there, other riders pick up the scooter using a GPS feature that locates the closest vehicle. This has led to some controversy in U.S. cities, with pedestrians complaining the poorly-parked scooters are nuisances or even dangerous obstacles on the street.
A representative for Lime met with councillors in Ottawa this week to discuss the potential for a future partnership. Several councillors posted videos to Twitter showing them taking the bright green electric scooters for a test drive at city hall.
There is no concrete plan in place for Lime’s vehicles to make their way to Ottawa’s streets any time soon. Electronic scooters are currently illegal on public roads in Ontario — a spokesperson for the Ontario Ministry of Transportation said the vehicles “do not meet any federal or provincial safety standards for on-road use.”
Some organizations, however, believe this may not be the case by the end of the year.
Coun. Riley Brockington, a member of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, said the think-tank believes changes to the province’s rules regarding e-scooters may be on the the horizon.
“There’s quite an ambitious legislative schedule this spring,” said Brockington. “There’s a belief that there will be some consultations about proposed changes to the legislation in late 2019, and Ottawa would be privy to these discussions.”
Chris Schafer, a spokesman for Lime, said the reason electric scooters are not allowed on public roads is because the vehicles are a recent invention, not because of safety issues.
“Historically, provincial governments have permitted things like horses, cars, bikes, e-bikes and other devices that were around at the time,” said Schafer. “The electric scooter is pretty new. So provincial governments just haven’t turned their minds to it. And as a result, they’re not on the roads by default, not because they have consciously decided to ban them.”
According to Schafer, there are examples throughout the country of cities and provinces getting on board with road-legal electric scooters. Calgary and Quebec have designed pilot projects that will allow residents to use e-scooters on public roads, with some restrictions. The only place in Ontario where Lime’s scooters are permitted is a 6.5-kilometre long trail route in Waterloo, which connects a local technology park to the main campus of the University of Waterloo.
“I would certainly support having staff take a look at this and being ready,” said Coun. Allan Hubley. “So that when the province approves them for our roads, Ottawa could offer them right away. I’d like to see staff ready to do that now.”
While Schafer said Lime’s scooters have benefits — they’re environmentally friendly and somewhat active alternatives to taking a car or bus — they also have a complicated history in the U.S. Several cities have complained or enforced cease-and-desist orders against Lime and other scooter companies.
One of the main complaints against the scooters stemmed from one of Lime’s key features: the dockless tech that allows riders to leave the scooters freely throughout the city. In San Francisco, people became so infuriated by the haphazard scattering of scooters — some of which were left blocking sidewalks and other areas with high foot traffic — that pedestrians took to vandalizing the vehicles, including tossing them into nearby bodies of water.
Brockington said he would support Lime if it had dedicated docking stations throughout the city, where scooters could be left safely out of the way of pedestrians and vehicles. Hubley echoed the idea, claiming it would be essential to “safely store them so they wouldn’t be in anybody’s way.”
Schafer responded that Ottawa already has a bike-sharing system — VeloGO — that doesn’t require docking and claimed it has not caused much of a hassle.
According to Court Curry, the manager who oversees the city’s urban design services, several staff members have opened a discussion with the ministry and are waiting for the next steps in the process to bring about regulatory changes.
“I think there’s definitely an opportunity, at least in the urban core of the city,” said Brockington. “It’s where you have density but also people who don’t own a car and need to make trips between point A and point B. It’s an interesting model and an interesting idea.”
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...bike-in-ottawa
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