The reality is that there will never be enough room for cars, so we need to focus on providing space for alternatives, from public transit to bikes, to micromobility devices, writes André Picard.Todd Korol/The Globe and Mail
Last Friday, a man in his 20s died in Toronto after his e-scooter collided with a vehicle. Earlier in the week, a 30-year-old woman in Vancouver died of injuries sustained in a collision with a vehicle.
Almost 1,000 people suffered injuries serious enough to require hospitalization in scooter crashes in 2023-24 (the latest year for which data are available), half of them on electric kick scooters, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information.
Clearly, as micromobility devices such as e-scooters and e-bikes grow in popularity, so too does the risk they pose to riders and pedestrians.
Of course, whenever this point is raised, critics counter with the relativity argument. To wit: Cars are a much greater risk than rideables.
That’s true. Nothing is more lethal than motor vehicles, especially as they grow to monstrous proportions.
In 2023 (again, the most recent stats), 1,964 people in Canada died in motor vehicle crashes, and 9,261 were so badly injured they required hospitalization. Another 118,838 suffered minor injuries.
Those deaths included 1,025 drivers, 301 passengers, 229 motorcyclists, 298 pedestrians, 47 cyclists, and 64 others (including, presumably, scooter users.)
Opinion: Enough with the e-bikes and e-scooters
But we can care simultaneously about the carnage wrought by motor vehicle crashes and e-scooter injuries and deaths. They are, after all, part of the same larger issue.
The way we travel, especially in urban areas, is changing markedly, but regulations and infrastructure have not adapted, creating growing tensions on streets, sidewalks and bike (and other things) lanes.
There are many advantages to micromobility devices like e-scooters. They are cheap, convenient, an easy way to bypass gridlock traffic, and less harmful for the environment than other forms of urban transport.
But we have to figure how to safely integrate these new modes of transport into already strained urban landscapes.
Where do e-scooters belong? On the road? On the sidewalk? On “bike” paths? Riders have to pick their poison and, whatever the choice, non-riders are left fuming.
Most confusing of all is the state of regulation/legislation, which varies wildly from province to province and even city to city.
In Toronto, for example, e-scooters are banned. But you wouldn’t know it because they are everywhere – though not quite as ubiquitous as food delivery drivers on e-bikes.
In Vancouver, e-scooters are permitted, with a long list of conditions set out in provincial and municipal regulations: They are not allowed on sidewalks, riders must be a minimum age of 16, helmets are mandatory, no doubling is allowed, maximum speed cannot exceed 25 kilometres per hour, etc.
Again, those rules are flouted openly, and police don’t care. E-scooter rules are not an “enforcement priority,” they say.
From the looks of things, neither are cycling/e-bike rules, or traffic rules for speeding cars and those burning through stop signs and red lights.
Police dedicate a piddling amount of their massive budgets to enforcement of traffic rules, roughly 3-5 per cent.
Do kids get any health benefits from riding e-scooters - and do they outweigh the risks?
But enforcement of existing rules is only part of the solution.
The biggest challenge in adapting to the micromobility revolution is infrastructure. Roads have been around a long time and so have sidewalks. But there needs to be more of the in-between, the so-called bike lane to accommodate everything that is not on two feet or four wheels.
This is not an easy issue, as we see in Ontario, where Premier Doug Ford has tried to force Toronto to remove bike lanes, but has been stifled by the courts.
The reality is that there will never be enough room for cars, so we need to focus on providing space for alternatives, from public transit to bikes, to micromobility devices. Take back the public space.
Education also plays an important role in improving safety. If people are going to ride e-scooters, they need to know how to handle them. Parents, in particular, need to recognize that e-scooters are not toys.
There is nowhere in Canada where riding an e-scooter under the age of 14 is legal (16 is the minimum age everywhere but Quebec).
Yet, pediatric hospitals report that up to 60 per cent of e-scooter injuries are in kids under 14. A lot of those injuries occur when kids are being “doubled” by adults. The vast majority of e-scooter injuries are to the head/brain, yet how often do you see the helmet dangling from the handlebars?
When it comes to e-scooters, and other new forms of transport, it’s easy to say “ban them.”
Instead, their popularity should challenge us to think differently, and act differently when reflecting on how to travel around cities easily and smartly.