‘We know they’re going to be here to stay,’ LPD official says of growing mobility trend
With electric scooters quickly becoming an ever-more common sight on Laval’s streets, officers from the Laval Police Dept. held a safety and information session in the parking lot outside the Carrefour Laval mall last Saturday in conjunction with the firms that are currently renting out e-scooters in Laval in public locations.
According to Cst. Simon Morrissette, an LPD veteran who oversees the force’s road safety and prevention unit, the LPD is taking proactive action to clarify the conditions for the safe and legal operation of e-scooters on the city’s roads and streets.
Making e-scooter use safe
“Our job right now is to promote the secure way of using them,” he said, adding that the LPD also wants to get the message out about the highway safety code rules that apply to e-scooters.
Since last year when the city first allowed and began promoting the use of rented e-scooters, the number of scooters available at rental stations in Laval has doubled, according to Morrissette.
“Because they’re a new type of mobility, which is also an active one, we know they’re going to be here to stay,” he said. “So, we want to be sure that everybody, before they start using them, are aware of the risks and the responsible ways of using them.”
$100+ tickets for violators
As it now stands, said Morrissette, e-scooters are defined within the Quebec highway safety code. That being said, those who ride them but who fail to abide by the rules risk receiving $100 tickets (plus administration fees) from the police for moving violations.
Perhaps the most important of these is failure to wear a helmet while operating an e-scooter.
Other e-scooters rules: The minimum age to operate one is 14 years; the electric motor cannot exceed 500 watts power; wheels must be at least 19 centimetres in diameter; it is forbidden for more than one person to travel aboard an e-scooter; and operating an e-scooter on sidewalks is strictly forbidden.
E-scooter sobriety test
As Morrissette pointed out, e-scooter promoters Bird and Lime have incorporated a number of technical features in their vehicles (and the apps used to lease them), which are designed to detect when someone who is impaired by alcohol or drugs is trying to take one out on the road.
E-scooters are just one of a growing range of new mobility devices which have come rapidly onto the market in recent years – often through relatively lax internet-retailing – leaving governments and road safety regulators playing a game of catch-up to adapt laws to the new technology.
But for the time being, the LPD is focusing on making e-scooter use safer for the growing number of users.
