Elise Kieffer
This fall, Ottawa’s three major e-scooter providers – Lime, Neuron, and Bird – have been working to mitigate safety and mobility challenges caused by the misuse of e-scooters. Expect to hear and see the results soon.
Haphazard e-scooter parking in the city has continued to create accessibility issues for those with physical disabilities and those who are visually impaired. However, the number of direct complaints to e-scooter companies has decreased from 2020, the first year of the project.
“They can be a bit of a nuisance, especially when the sidewalks are crowded,” said Glebe resident Carol Brillinger when asked about mobility concerns associated with e-scooters. In older areas of Ottawa, the inability to find proper e-scooter parking has also become a safety concern for many with mobility issues.
The three e-scooter providers are currently working with the City of Ottawa to create designated parking spaces for riders in more densely populated areas. According to the city, designated e-scooter parking can be made easily accessible where street furniture such as benches, flower boxes and bike racks are found.
The Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) raised concerns in a meeting with the city and the e-scooter companies about the impact that unsafe e-scooter parking practices and the lack of e-scooter detection have on those with physical disabilities, or visual impairments. These concerns also extend to parents with strollers and to seniors.
To respond to the complaints, Lime, Neuron and Bird have updated their apps to include visual parking spaces on online maps. This provides customers with designated areas to park scooters to mitigate this problem, as the suppliers work to implement longer-term measures.
They’re also making scooters more audible, a change the CNIB had been pushing for since the beginning of the project.
“We will be piloting sound emission in the next few weeks in Ottawa, after working closely with CNIB, as well as the accessibility advisory community at city hall,” said Chris Schafer, vice-president of government affairs for Bird Canada.
On a trial basis, e-scooters in Ottawa will start to emit a constant buzzing noise while in motion. This will help those with visual disabilities, as well as drivers, to be more aware of e-scooter riders around them. The e-scooter company Tier had done this in England.
Although the e-scooter companies of Ottawa have run into safety and mobility challenges, according to one Centretown resident, the positives outweigh the negatives. “The benefit of it (e-scootering) is that more people are able to enjoy the city and see it (Ottawa) from a different perspective,” said avid green transportation user Patrick Thompson.
Many residents, who were asked at Somerset and Bank Streets, said that pilot programs such as the ones initiated with Lime, Neuron and Bird are meant to sort out issues like these, to help integrate e-scooters into the rest of the city and to support greener transportation methods for the future.