This blog is a continuation of our previous blog titled: Is There a Role for E-scooters in Urban Mobility? Check it out here.
In our previous blog, we delved into the complexities of e-scooters and their role in urban mobility, exploring their potential to meet climate, equity, and health objectives while also acknowledging the safety and accessibility challenges they pose. So, where does all this leave us? We can safely say two things about e-scooters:
- They do have real potential to support GHG emission reduction efforts, increase access to social and economic opportunities, and fill a need in equity-deserving communities;
- E-scooters create real safety and accessibility issues, the impacts of which are felt most acutely by those who are blind and/or have mobility impairments.
Where do we go from here? Here are a few steps we can take that would help unlock the benefits of e-scooters while also addressing safety and accessibility issues:
- No storage of e-scooters on sidewalks. There are already so many priorities cities are trying to juggle within limited sidewalk spaces. Creating sidewalks that are barrier-free and accessible while also providing tree coverage, patio space, accessible seating, public washrooms, and other important amenities is difficult enough as is without adding e-scooters into the mix. Cities should look at alternate ways to ensure that the use and storage of e-scooters do not conflict with the needs of residents with mobility impairments.
- Repurpose on-street parking for e-scooter storage. Address the accessibility issue caused by storing e-scooters on sidewalks by creating storage space on the street. One of the big potential benefits of e-scooters is their ability to get people out of cars and into sustainable modes of transport. Let’s support that transition by making it easier to park e-scooters (and bikes and bike share systems) and harder to park cars. Combined, these first two suggestions should go a long way towards removing the accessibility barriers caused by e-scooters left all over the sidewalk.
- Ban riding e-scooters on sidewalks and permit them in bike lakes and cycle tracks. Most places have similar rules in place to govern the usage of bikes on sidewalks, as we recognize that an adult riding a bike at 20km/hour on a sidewalk is a safety hazard to pedestrians. The same logic should apply to e-scooters. They belong with bikes and e-bikes on safe, protected infrastructure of their own, particularly in densely populated areas with high levels of foot traffic.
- Limit the speed of e-scooters on sidewalks. The previous suggestion presupposes that the roadway isn’t entirely hostile to e-scooters. In some neighbourhoods, particularly in suburban areas, streets are so unsafe for anyone not in a car that telling people to hop on their scooters and share eight lanes of traffic with cars travelling 60km/hour is just not practical advice. In those circumstances, limiting the speed of e-scooters on sidewalks to 10km/hour, about the same speed as an electric wheelchair, would be a way to balance everyone’s right to access safe mobility.
- Ensure e-scooter pilot programs incorporate equity-deserving communities. Cities have traditionally struggled to provide safe, affordable, convenient, and comfortable sustainable transportation options to neighbourhoods that are majority equity-deserving populations. E-scooters and other micro-mobility devices do seem to have a role to play in addressing this historical inequity, but only if cities mandate and ensure pilot programs incorporate areas traditionally underserved by public transit and active transportation infrastructure.
This is far from a comprehensive strategy. It doesn’t touch on specifics of how to implement speed limits for e-scooters on sidewalks, the role (if any) of bylaw enforcement, or how to handle children on e-scooters, to name just a few things. It is intended as a starting point for conversation.
At the end of the day, the same accessibility problems caused by e-scooters are at times also caused by bikes that are ridden on the sidewalk and improperly stored. However, because bikes have been a part of our streets for so much longer, discussions around how to address these challenges are not about whether we should ban bikes or not. Instead, we focus (however imperfectly) on creating infrastructure that both meets the needs of people with disabilities and supports sustainable mobility options. The same approach must be applied to e-scooters. The harms caused by e-scooters when not regulated at all, particularly to equity-deserving groups like blind people and those with mobility impairments, are very real and cannot be ignored. The benefits of GHG emission reductions and increasing transportation access to equity-deserving communities living in transit deserts are similarly too immense to ban e-scooters completely. Cities must hold fast to both these thoughts at once, roll up their sleeves, and develop frameworks for e-scooters and other micro-mobility devices that further safe mobility systems for people with disabilities and support the transition away from single-occupancy vehicles at the same time. E-scooters are here, and the accessibility needs are real. Cities must embrace the challenge, confront the real accessibility needs, and create solutions that work for everyone.
By David Simor, TCAT Director