Sobriety tests, longer hours: E-scooters are back, but the rules have changed
E-scooters are back on Ot‐ tawa streets for 2024, but with some new rules and regulations.
This year marks the fifth and final year of a pilot project first set up by the province in 2020. The city has selected two scooter providers who've operated in previous years - Bird Canada Inc., and Neuron Mobility.
The plan is to have a fleet of 900 e-scooters that can be used in and around an area bordered by St. Laurent Boulevard in the east, Rideau River/Carling Avenue in the south, Churchill Avenue in the west and the Ottawa Riv‐ er in the north.
The fleet could expand to 1,200 if it's needed, the city says.
Here are some of the new - and old - rules you need to follow if you want to use one of the e-scooters.
Hours extended
People will be able to ride be‐ tween 5 a.m. and 1 a.m. this year. That's two hours later than in 2023, and one hour earlier.
The only exception is that after 11 p.m., if scooter users bring their rides to an end in the ByWard Market, they won't be able to start a new one.
That's due to the high concentration of bars in the neighbourhood. Riders will still be able to travel through the market after 11 p.m., and stop at lights and crosswalks, but they can't get on and off.
Isaac Ransom, head of corporate affairs at Neuron Mobility, said he's happy to see the longer hours but would like to have the scooters available 24/7.
"There's no other city in Canada that we're aware of that has limitations on when e-scooters can operate," Ran‐ som said.
"We operate across all of our markets in Canada 24/7 without incident, so I don't see any reason why we can't operate in Ottawa that way."
Not on NCC paths
Riders will also be barred from taking e-scooters along the Rideau Canal Pathway or the Ottawa River Pathway.
The land belongs to the National Capital Commission (NCC), which doesn't allow escooters or any vehicle that can't be propelled by a per‐ son on the pathways.
According to Austin Spademan, head of govern‐ ment relations for Bird Cana‐ da, they've heard from stu‐ dents at Carleton University who are concerned they might end up on busy Bron‐ son Avenue.
"That's quite a scary road to ride an electric scooter on," Spademan said.
"A lot of students have asked if it's possible to ride on the NCC trails that go near campus to get around Bron‐ son and get over to Bank Street on multi-use path‐ ways. And the answer is no."
Goodbye drinking and scooting
Starting this year, riders will have to complete a sobriety test on the app before ac‐ cessing the e-scooters after 11 p.m.
Bird Canada's test has echoes of an impaired dri‐ ving test, with users having to identify which lines on a screen are straight and which ones lean to either the right or left.
Neuron Mobility's test makes users react to promp‐ ts within a limited time be‐ fore they can unlock an escooter.
They've been imple‐ mented to discourage people from riding while intoxicated.
Bird Canada will still be monitoring riders for potenti‐ al intoxication outside of the restricted hours, Spademan said.
"If you're weaving and dri‐ ving frankly like an idiot, our scooter can detect that," he said.
"We can determine your riding behaviour and take ac‐ tion appropriately. And what that would look like is a per‐ manent ban if you're not learning the appropriate rid‐ ing behaviour."
Riders will receive a warn‐ ing email if the company de‐ tects poor riding behaviour, like frequently slamming on the brakes or swerving errati‐ cally. They could be sus‐ pended or banned if further violations occur.
The City of Ottawa will al‐ so issue $150 tickets to users riding on the sidewalk.
Longer e-scooter season this year
The 2024 season has also started three weeks earlier than last year. It's slated to run until Nov. 15, weather permitting
Last year, the city re‐ ported that riders made roughly 1,000 e-scooter trips every day.
Centretown was the most popular origin and destina‐ tion neighbourhood, with Sandy Hill and the ByWard Market following closely be‐ hind.
The top complaint filed to both companies was escooters being parked incor‐ rectly. The e-scooters have been equipped with geofenc‐ ing technology that warns riders not to drive on side‐ walks or dump scooters in unapproved parking areas.
The e-scooters are avail‐ able to use for anyone over the age of 16 and riders can‐ not exceed 50 km/h.
Once the season wraps up, the province will then de‐ cide whether to make escooters a permanent fix‐ ture, extend the temporary pilot project, or discontinue them.