E-scooters set to be corralled in Toronto

Thestar.com
February 5, 2020
David Rider

Dockless electric scooters waiting on sidewalks for commuters to hop on and then abandon wherever they please don’t appear to be part of Toronto’s transportation future.

Next month, city experts will reveal hotly awaited recommendations for e-scooter use during a five-year provincially sanctioned pilot project that will let municipalities create most of the rules.

Senior project manager Janet Lo gave a preview Monday to members of the Toronto Accessibility Advisory Committee. Those members later called the devices an unacceptable threat to the safety of disabled Torontonians.

Lo said work on the report continues. but staff’s “preferred” model would see riders pick up and leave e-scooters only in designated spots -- potentially Bike Share Toronto stations, or on-street vehicle parking spots converted to scooter use by Toronto Parking Authority (TPA).

“What we are suggesting is the designated-parking model ... The high density of bike share stations -- they are planning for 625 -- makes it easy for people to be able to walk to them and access these shared micromobility options,” Lo said. “This addresses the sidewalk clutter and obstructions issue.”

Thickets of dockless e-scooters became eyesores and safety hazards in U.S. cities including San Francisco, which last March ordered two app-based services to collect devices that had been deployed without city permission. Lo noted that city now forces approved firms to use “lock-to” scooters that are parked locked to a stationary object, further reducing clutter.

Staff will recommend to councillors that TPA, which operates Bike Share Toronto, become the city’s umbrella agency for all “micromobility” options, Lo said, noting its plan to add 300 e-bikes as a pilot project. Lo did not respond to a request Tuesday to elaborate on TPA’s possible e-scooter role, nor did she reveal where staff will recommend Torontonians be allowed to ride the devices.

The Canadian heads of the two biggest e-scooter companies, Bird and Lime, said Tuesday they could operate with specified parking spots downtown, but they would need a lot of them.

“We see a two-zoned system as ideal for Toronto,” said Lime’s Chris Schafer, with riders in suburbs able to leave scooters “at the sidewalk’s edge wherever is convenient,” and in designated parking spots downtown, either on the street or on sidewalks if width permits.

“This allows for an organized program that also balances the convenience riders appreciate in cities around the world,” he said in an email.

Bird Canada’s Stewart Lyons is also advocating e-scooter parking spaces downtown and a more free-floating model outside the core. “We have no problem with a more defined parking system. We have that in Montreal, but we need a lot of (spots), maybe every 80 to 100 metres,” Lyons said, adding that restricting the spots to Bike Share stations would be insufficient.

At the meeting, Lo heard from disability advocates who don’t want the devices in Toronto at all.

“Electric scooters pose an immediate and serious danger to people with disabilities, as well as others. Thy should not be allowed,” said David Lepofsky, chair of Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance. Lepofsky, a lawyer who is blind, said vehicles that can zip silently at 24 km/h are dangerous to people like him when they are moving, and a tripping and obstruction hazard when they are parked.

Coun. Kristyn Wong-Tam, chair of the accessibility advisory committee, marvelled at injury statistics collected from July to mid-October during Calgary’s ongoing pilot project. Hundreds of scooter-related hospital visits included 33 that required ambulance trips, Lo said, including riders who suffered head and facial injuries and at least one pedestrian.

Wong-Tam drafted a motion, passed unanimously by committee members, urging council to reject calls to legalize e-scooter services. If they are legalized, the committee said, rules must be guided by public safety in “robust consultations with people living with disabilities.”