E-scooters to return as early as mid-May after last season's late start

E-scooters are set to return to Ottawa streets as early as mid-May after a shortened 2022 season that saw the companies retool the devices to deal with the city's safety concerns.

On Thursday, members of the City of Ottawa's transportation committee were satisfied about the updated technology, which keeps the rental scooters off sidewalks and makes noise to warn others when they're approaching.

Committee members unanimously approved a fourth season and its chair, Coun. Tim Tierney, called Ottawa's approach the "gold standard."

The city does not operate its own e-scooter program but it sets the rules by which Bird Canada and Neuron Mobility operate locally. It's part of a pilot the Ontario government is running from 2020 through the end of 2024 to discern if scooters should be allowed permanently.

Last year, Ottawa city council let the program continue but asked for some major changes.

It wanted the scooters modified to emit a continuous noise and prohibited them from riding on sidewalks, plus the city required the scooters be parked in designated spaces. That meant Bird and Neuron had to map areas and install more geo-fencing technology to force the scooters to park in "digital parking corrals" and avoid mixing with pedestrians on sidewalks.

That delayed the rollout last season until July, almost two months late. Even though each company was permitted 450 devices, neither company ever deployed that many. That led to a significant drop in rides in 2022 — just 80,000 compared to 492,000 in 2021 when an extra 300 scooters had been allowed.

The companies also operated in a much smaller area than allowed (they can operate from Westboro east to Overbrook). Instead, they managed to geo-fence an area from Lowertown and downtown south to Carleton University in 2022.

Somerset ward Coun. Ariel Troster said her campaign manager ran into the limits of last year's service when the scooter stopped working several blocks away from her destination.

"I think folks in Hintonburg and Westboro would love to be able to get home from the [ByWard] Market and from Centretown," she said.

Heidi Cousineau, a program manager at the City of Ottawa who is responsible for the e-scooter pilot, said the companies had geo-fenced the core of the city last year and can now expand outward.

Support for e-scooters grows

Centretown was the most popular area for e-scooter rides, and Troster acknowledged her predecessor Catherine McKenney opposed the program because of safety concerns.

Troster supported the fourth season, however, pointing to how the city's accessibility advisory committee had changed its position in February to no longer oppose the e-scooter pilot.

The advisory committee found the technologies rolled out in 2022 dealt with the biggest concerns over misuse of the shared scooters, but also asked city council to push for provincial rules to deal with scooters owned by consumers.

Kate Riccomini, who is partly blind, told committee bylaw and police officers need to enforce the rules for all e-scooters, not just rentals.

"For private e-scooters, we can't rely on technology to enforce good rider behaviour," she said.

If the 2023 season goes well, the city's general manager of planning, real estate and economic development will be allowed to approve a fifth and final pilot season, possibly with 300 extra scooters, without bringing the file to transportation committee.