Montreal City Weblog

Kate 06:58 on 2019-03-14 Permalink Reply  

• Tim S. 08:21 on 2019-03-14 Permalink

  Awesome, more carefully written bylaws that no one will enforce. I don’t know if this will cause many injuries, but it will surely increase the stress levels of pretty much all pedestrians and even people on non-motorized transport.

• Joey 08:59 on 2019-03-14 Permalink

  Who will be the first Montreal media personality to author the first “I thought I would hate these scooters but it turns out I love them” piece? Josh Freed? Probably not, if it means leaving his street. Bill Brownstein?

• Chris 09:29 on 2019-03-14 Permalink

  Oh boy, could be interesting.

  In California, it’s been pretty hectic, with a love/hate relationship to the things.

  “Proponents note that the vehicles reduce motor vehicle traffic and improve urban mobility” -> the little data I’ve seen on this is that they displace walking trips, *not* vehicle trips. Similar to Uber, which seems to displace public transport trips, not private car trips. If you already own a car, you’re going to keep using it. If you’re thinking to buy a car, you’re not going to not buy because a summer-only scooter option is now available.

  Still, I support their introduction. We need to simultaneously reallocate public space away from automobiles. More space for walkers and bikers and now scooters. Otherwise, these scooters will just take away space from walkers and bikers.

• Ephraim 09:44 on 2019-03-14 Permalink

  So for the scooters, sidewalks, bicycle paths or street… where are they legally required to be ridden?

• Chris 10:10 on 2019-03-14 Permalink

  Ephraim, you obviously didn’t RTFA. 🙂

  In California, these things are strewn across sidewalks. If we don’t want that, the only other place to park them is on roads, like bixi (though dockless). This is a great opportunity to remove more car parking, a proven technique to reduce car trips into downtown, hopefully Projet will seize it.

• Tim S. 10:33 on 2019-03-14 Permalink

  Interesting, Chris. Much as I support car reduction, I don’t really see replacing walking with more manufactured crap as a step forward for the environment or health.

• Ephraim 12:11 on 2019-03-14 Permalink

  Chris, I did RTFA and it talks about the city putting in regulations… but that the regulations don’t really exist. (And frankly, as I have repeatedly pointed out, regulations are only as good as enforcement… and since we rarely get any enforcement of any law in Montreal… this too will be a free-for-all, except they will have to pay for permits to do it.)

  Legally they don’t have a right to drive on sidewalks (waiting to see this…. because we can’t keep the cyclists off the sidewalks already… how are we going to keep the scooters off.) And I’m waiting for the cyclists to start complaining about them being in the bicycle paths…. and then of course the car drivers next.

  And where are they going to put them, since they are dockless, because from what friends have told me in the US they are just tossed and left all over the place. So, not allowed on the sidewalk, but don’t have to go back to any specific area…. where oh where will they end up?

  It’s another example of the me me me generation. They don’t even want the responsibility of having to put this away properly, maintain it, secure it, etc. Just dump it when I’m doing and someone else can charge it, maintain it and what happens, happens…. we’ll deal with the consequences later, after society pays for it all.

• Kevin 19:03 on 2019-03-14 Permalink

  If the prices I’ve read for charging are accurate I may have a new hobby this summer.

• Kate 13:04 on 2019-03-15 Permalink

  How do these things intersect with
  a) needing a helmet
  b) needing a driver’s license

  ?

• Blork 13:57 on 2019-03-15 Permalink

  No, and no.

  I’m wondering how they intersect with broken bones and other injuries. I’m not worried about the e-bikes but the scooters are dangerous. Non-motorized foot scooters are fairly benign; they’re just a step up from kids’ toys. But motorized ones go faster. Also, if you own a foot scooter you learn how to ride it properly (you get the sense of balance, how fast you can be going when turning, etc.) But if you’re just some arsehole who wants to grab and ride an electric foot scooter for the first (or second or third) time, watch out!

  Particularly on Montreal’s perilous rough roads. Those tiny wheels do not work well with potholes or other bumps. And turning can be tricky if you’re going fast.

  Dooring cylists? Next up: dooring e-scooterists. They will likely not be allowed on sidewalks, and not every street has a bicycle lane. That means they’ll be on the street, in traffic. But they’re slower and less maneuverable than bicycles, so scooter riders will hug the right side of the lane, basically zipping along just inches from the line of parked cars.

  There will be blood.

• Ian 18:08 on 2019-03-15 Permalink

  Yeah I really don’t see adding scooters reducing car traffic for all the reasons mentioned above. I know everyone hates cars, blah blah blah, but having a different mode of transport doesn’t automatically reduce car traffic, and in some cases will increase overall traffic hazards. Also, given how crappy bixis made bicycling (inexperienced and irregular cyclists filling up the bike lanes, riding several abreast, unfamiliar with bicycling conventions, riding slow like a bunch of touristy dopes), I can only imagine how much more hazardous scooters will make things – yeah, people that don’t regularly ride scooters, probably don’t know the neighbourhood because they are tourists, and don’t even have helmets? My one way north-going street in trendy Mile End with parking on both sides has two way bike lanes, already super hazardous for cyclists because drivers pulling out of the left parking lane can’t see into the bike lane until they are already in it. Make that lane full of unhelmeted dopes going 40k and somebody is going to get pasted.

• Ian 18:09 on 2019-03-15 Permalink

  For a party that claims to be all about urban planning PM really didn’t think the Jeanne-Mance bike paths through. Most regular bicyclists I know won’t take the left lane because it’s an obvious death trap.

• Bradley M 06:38 on 2019-03-16 Permalink

  The ones that I’ve seen have a “bounty” program for charging run by volunteers who charge them themselves and are later reimbursed for the use of their electricity, and then “redistribute” them throughout the served area, which I guess is clever. A super annoying trend I’ve noticed with them though, is that some people get territorial over “their” scooter or “their” bike, and use their own lock to deter people from claiming it when they’re not using it, or even bring it in off the street.