E-Bikes & E-Scooters Booming In Calgary

E-Bikes & E-Scooters Replacing Car Trips!

In a recent Calgary municipal report, up to 1/3rd of car trips are being replaced by e-scooter and e-bikes in Calgary.  This is having a significant impact on tail-pipe and CO2 emissions.

Also, trips to the local bakery or the grocery store are becoming “fun” again, as electric modes of transportation are generally more enjoyable than car and truck alternatives.

According to the Globe and Mail, There have have been “750,000 e-scooter trips from July until October, when they were taken off the road because of wintry weather”.

While this program has undoubtedly been a success, there are still some kinks that need to be worked out.  Firstly, e-bikes and e-scooters are considerably faster than standard bikes.

Setting up so called “low-speed” zones in high civilian population areas is one idea that was mentioned as well as potential new by-laws that better regulate the fast growing e-bike and e-scooter sector.

While the overwhelming majority of users use the transportation responsibly, there were some bad actors and bad behaviours.  Going too fast, swerving between pedestrians and vehicles, and near misses of pedestrians topped the list.

There were a total of 33 injuries between the months of July and October (per approx. 750,000 rides).  While this is relatively quite safe, there is room to improve.

Lastly, Bird Canada, mentioned that they were going to be meeting with officials in both Vancouver and Victoria soon.  The B.C. government, and ICBC, have been actively working out legislation to work around the e-bike and e-scooter conundrum.  The West Coast would be an excellent area to run a pilot program, given the year round nice weather (if you don’t mind a little rain).