City staff back minicars, but warn against e-scooters
‘Micromobility strategy’ proposes ‘low-speed vehicles’
Low-speed electric minicars will be gliding along Toronto streets if city staff get their way. Commonly used e-scooters, however, would remain illegal.
Toronto, like most cities, is grappling with a wave of battery-powered travel options including electric bikes, standup scooters, skateboards, unicycles and more. Cheaper than cars and emission free, they have raised safety concerns as Torontonians whiz around town, sometimes on sidewalks, in new and often silent ways.
Under a proposed “micromobility strategy” debated at city hall Thursday, city staff want to add a new, somewhat bigger option. “Low-speed vehicles” — fourwheeled cars or trucks carrying two to four passengers at speeds up to 40 km/h — would be allowed on streets with speed limits of up to 50 km/h.
City council would need to opt into a provincial pilot project that runs until 2027, joining municipalities including Ottawa, Haldimand County and Parry Sound. The vehicles are subject to federal safety requirements. Operators need a driver’s licence, registration and insurance.
The report says the vehicles start at around $10,000 and can travel between 64 and 100 kilometres after being charged through a standard household outlet. Purolator has experimented with the minivehicles for door-to-door deliveries. City staff recommend against allowing them to be used as cabs or ride-hail vehicles.
“Public feedback is generally favourable for allowing LSVs that can be used for utilitarian travel, while being greener and safer than heavier, faster cars/SUVs/vans/trucks,” the staff report states, adding that low-speed vehicles would not be allowed in bike lanes or on sidewalks.
As for e-scooters, a common sight on Toronto streets even though they are illegal under Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act, city staff continue to strongly warn against legalizing them for private use or via app-based rentals, despite heavy lobbying by e-scooter firms offering rentals in Ottawa, Calgary and other cities around the world.
Rental scooters abandoned on sidewalks and other places are hazards to blind people and others with disabilities, who also face increased collision risk. City staff also cited the safety of riders, given ongoing deterioration of Toronto streets due to budget constraints.
“The city’s $3-billion state-of-good-repair backlog for roads poses a serious injury and fatality risk for e-scooter riders and exposes the city to liability,” Janet Lo, a transportation senior project manager, told members of the infrastructure and environment committee.
Disability advocates urged committee members to recommend that city council keep the ban, which technically makes e-scooters illegal although the devices are openly sold and police rarely stop anyone riding them.
Representatives for e-scooter rental services Bird Canada and Lime Scooter said Torontonians are being denied a popular, zeroemission, short-trip car alternative, adding they are eager to work with Toronto officials to address all the safety concerns.
Committee members endorsed the staff recommendations, but some warned that, when e-scooter rental firms have fully addressed concerns, Toronto must figure out how to legalize and regulate devices that are being widely used without any rules.
“It ain’t going away and we’ll be back here another day and trying to peel the egg off our faces,” said Coun. Anthony Perruzza.
Torontonians already facing traffic gridlock that is among the worst in the world might be wary of vehicles capped at 40 km/h.
“Fully predicting the impact of this initiative on congestion requires models that capture how people’s behaviour will change with these new options,” said Jeffrey Brook, an associate professor at U of T’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health. “Such models are, from my sense, very limited to non-existent.”
What is clear, he added in an email to the Star, is that electric mobility options as a whole could reduce traffic congestion and are vital to cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
“In my opinion this is really an important and necessary idea to explore for Canada’s major cities … I applaud the city for piloting this direction.”
City council will have the final say later this month.