By John Chenier
A report by city officials recommends Ottawa expand the e-scooter program in 2021. Specifically, the recommendations are to:
Approve the continuance of Ottawa’s Electric Kick Scooter Pilot in 2021 as detailed in the report, with proposed changes to the pilot program, and a revised fee structure and procurement strategy;
Approve the implementation of a competitive procurement process and enter into agreements with successful proponents of the process; and
Direct staff to report back to the Transportation Committee and Council at the conclusion of the 2021 pilot project for consideration of future pilot seasons.
According to John Verbas, Co-Chair of the Federation of Citizens’ Association Transportation Committee, it appears that the City will rely on “improved behavior through education” of users to address the issue of users parking or riding on sidewalks.
The gist of the recommendations for the 2021 season is to provide more residents with reliable access to shared e-scooters, to achieve consistently safe and courteous e-scooter riding and parking, to reduce the burden of issue management and monitoring for staff and elected officials, and to improve the pedestrian experience for all road and sidewalk users, especially the most vulnerable.
The recommendations call for:
Selecting up to three e-scooter operators through a competitive procurement process;
Increasing the total fleet size from 600 to between 1,200 and 1,500 and widening the central deployment area where the scooters will be available;
Exploring the possibility of a satellite pilot of up to 300 e-scooters outside the Greenbelt, to determine the use and feasibility of e-scooters in a suburban area. The 300 satellite e-scooters will be part of the City’s total fleet size of between 1,200 and 1,500 units; and
addressing sidewalk riding and improper parking through a variety of mitigation measures as outlined in the report.
Verbas noted the downside of the e-scooter craze is the potential impact on “active” transportation. He noted that “The e-scooter share programs are taking a big bite out of bike-share programs throughout North America. The City will soon table a report on bike-share program options for the City. There has been no program here for the past two years.”
Residents of Lowertown, particularly in the ByWard Market and surrounds, seem to bear the brunt of the e-scooter craze. One can only hope that doubling the numbers of these comes with expanding the area where these are staged. Otherwise, ByWard will come to resemble an e-scooter amusement park.