Electric Scooters

[dougvdh]

Originally Posted by Acajack

On a slightly different topic (and I know they're not electric), but has anyone noticed that mopeds (or vespas), those motorized scooters, are way more common in Gatineau than in Ottawa?

Maybe I'm not looking but it seems like I never see them in Ottawa, whereas in Gatineau they're all over the place as soon as the snow melts.

In Quebec, you can get a moped license at 14 years (plus have a class 6B license). Ontario it's 16 (LSM class license).

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by dougvdh

In Quebec, you can get a moped license at 14 years (plus have a class 6B license). Ontario it's 16 (LSM class license).

Thanks for the info. It makes sense then that in Ontario it's not really worth it for kids yearning for greater mobility to get a moped when they're close to being able to drive a car.

[rocketphish]

Sobriety tests, longer hours: E-scooters are back, but the rules have changed
Province will decide once season wraps about future of pilot project

Alex Dines · CBC News
Posted: Apr 27, 2024 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 6 hours ago

E-scooters are back on Ottawa 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 River 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.

<more>

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...ules-1.7181991

[DTcrawler]

I’ve probably said this at least twice already in this thread, but it’s worth repeating… this city loves to take solutions that are very practical and convenient, and douse them with rules and red tape that make them no longer a “solution”.

[eltodesukane]

How much $ to use those scooters?

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by eltodesukane

How much $ to use those scooters?

$1.15 + 42 cents a minute. Not sure what current rates are in other cities but that is much much more expensive than my experience in other cities. Trying to link to the LRT for a commute from 10 minutes away becomes prohibitively expensive. As if wearing a helmet and the other hurdles like very restricted parking rules didn't already make it inconvenient for that purpose anyway.

[TransitZilla]

Originally Posted by YOWetal

$1.15 + 42 cents a minute. Not sure what current rates are in other cities but that is much much more expensive than my experience in other cities. Trying to link to the LRT for a commute from 10 minutes away becomes prohibitively expensive. As if wearing a helmet and the other hurdles like very restricted parking rules didn't already make it inconvenient for that purpose anyway.

The apps also offer passes that would probably mean significant savings for frequent use. For e.g. Neuron has a pass for $2.99/month that eliminates the $1.15 per ride fee and gives a 20% discount on the per-minute fee.

[Uhuniau]

What's the reasoning behind the NCC's intransigence about using their precious facilities for scooting?

[DTcrawler]

Originally Posted by Uhuniau

What's the reasoning behind the NCC's intransigence about using their precious facilities for scooting?

My guess(es)...

1) Safety, can't trust e-scooters limited to 20km/h on the MUPs (meanwhile downright suicidal drivers doing 25+ km/h over the limit on the pitch black un-lit NCC parkways, mere metres away from MUP users, are totally fine).

2) Because of some silly concern around the "corporatization" of public amenities like NCC mups by e-scooter companies.

[Uhuniau]

Originally Posted by DTcrawler

My guess(es)...

1) Safety, can't trust e-scooters limited to 20km/h on the MUPs (meanwhile downright suicidal drivers doing 25+ km/h over the limit on the pitch black un-lit NCC parkways, mere metres away from MUP users, are totally fine).

Or downright suicidal cyclists under the mistaken belief that they are on "bike paths".

I see no difference, as a pedestrian, in the safety risk profile of scooters vs. MAMILS. None.

2) Because of some silly concern around the "corporatization" of public amenities like NCC mups by e-scooter companies.

How would that be any more "corporatizing" than someone jogging along a MUP in a branded tanktop?

[OTownandDown]

The whole thing is insane. You can't travel through a geofence area, and you can't turn your scoot off once you've entered a geofence area. Of which there are dozens of highly-focused geofence areas, and the scoots have terrible geo-location leading to constant phantom death due to geofence landmines.

To get from Trainyards to Parliament, one needs to:
1. Get on a scooter at Trainyards, pay the startup fee.
2. Scoot to Hurdman, but not on the bike paths. Take your life in your hands on Industrial from Alta-Vista to Riverside. Abandon scoot near the corner there, where allowed. There's a mile of unscootable geofence between Hurdman and downtown.
3. Walk through Hurdman Station (FROM RIVERSIDE, NO LESS), and across Lees Bridge (about 10 minutes).
4. Find a similar pile of abandoned scooters outside Lees Bridge footpath, in the weeds beside a fence, people whos scoots died crossing the Lees bridge over the Rideau. You can be outside the geofence for a 10sq.ft. area to turn off your scooter. Pay the startup fee again.
5. Scoot on down to the Petoria Bridge thru Lees, quite pleasant. Abandon Scoot at the bike paths again, because the geofence isn't very accurate and bike paths are plentiful there, it's a land-mine of dead scoots.
6. Find pile of abandoned scoots at foot of Elgin from similar frustrated scootees, pay initiation fee.
7. Scoot on down Elgin, avoid Laurier (no-no, geofence landmines) and avoid Sparks (death to scoots!). Avoid even touching a curb zone, also a landmine for dead scoots.
8. Arrive at Parliament, Realize Uber would have taken 1/8th the time and less cost. No place to turn off scooter because of land mine geofence issue, especially on Wellington. Scoot back down to Queen, turn off scoot in the middle of the road to avoid the sidewalk, and then drag the scooter to the curb. Sigh.

Bikers and those with private scooters can make it downtown from Trainyards along the O-Train bike path in about 10-15 minutes. Public rental scooters require about 45 minutes and $20. If I had to do this every day, I'd just buy a scooter for $500 and break the law every day. Its not as though anybody is watching anyways.

[zzptichka]

Wait, they geofence the city LRT MUP? Aren't scooters speed-limited at 20kmh? Why?

[OTSkyline]

I wish the service area was expanded to include everything inside the greenbelt.

Personally, I would love to take a different transportation method to visit downtown in the spring/summer/fall. Currently I need to take a bus from my home (Carlingwood) to Tunney's and then the LRT to downtown.

I don't like the bus and avoid it - almost - at all costs, therefore I mostly drive downtown on evenings/weekends. If I had the opportunity to use e-scooters from my home to Tunney's and then hop on the train, I'd be much more enticed to do so throughout these seasons.

[OTownandDown]

Originally Posted by zzptichka

Wait, they geofence the city LRT MUP? Aren't scooters speed-limited at 20kmh? Why?

AND Bird has the ability to geofence the scoot to go slow (like 10km/hr instead of 20km/hr) yet it's a NO RIDE zone all around hurdman except for what seems to be within the goddam station which is a go slow zone...

Here is the interactive map. Note that if you happen to cross the 'no ride road/path' red lines, even at a perpendicular path of travel, you hit a 'land mine' and the scoot will beep and shut off for a frustrating length of time, until you can physically drag it far enough away to turn back on. You also get pinged in the app and warned.

And you can see on the Lees bridge, the river to the south is 'out of bounds' and its marked right up to the bridge, so good luck trying to cross the bridge., or travel along the north bank of the Rideau River along the 'out of bounds' line. And even if you did manage to get thru Lees towards Petoria, there's about 5 solid lines of 'No Ride' (Colonel By, the bike paths, Queen E and the sidewalks) to get across Petoria bridge. So your scoot would shut right down and need to be dragged across, and they're pretty heavy. And you're still paying the per minute fee.

If you manage to scoot up Elgin without tripping the dozen or so individual goddam properties listed as 'no-ride' zones, god help you if you try to go anywhere near Sparks, Parliament, City Hall, uOttawa, or the Market. You'll be stuck in large areas that you can't park in, and you'll pay by the minute till you can get the scooter to think it's outside of a no-ride zone before you can log out. Try to get away from Parliament by going down OConnor? BOOM hit the sparks exclusion which hair-pullingly extends in a continuous line down sparks, across all the cross streets.

And did I mention that when you fire up a scooter in the App, it's not obvious where to find the exclusion map, and so all of this turning off and on is apparently RANDOM if you didn't have prior knowledge. So a tourist would be IMMEDIATELY frustrated, hitting random landmines with scooters turning off and on.

https://ottawa.ca/en/city-hall/creat...9-e4db814d0f9d

[rocketphish]

https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/1.7189722