It\u2019s been seven years since the city opened the streets to rentable e-scooters and e-bikes, but now one councillor is looking to put limits on where users park the popular public transportation devices.<\/p>\n
Noting the middle of the sidewalk is not the place to be leaving your e-scooter,\u00a0Ward Dene Coun. Aaron Paquette says he\u2019s putting forward a motion asking for a report on establishing a \u201cgeo-fenced\u201d parking model for micro-mobility devices to stop them from blocking other pedestrian traffic.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor several years, I and many people have noticed that sometimes these scooters are just kind of abandoned right in the middle of the sidewalk,\u201d he told Postmedia. \u201cPeople who have mobility challenges \u2014 like seniors, people with disabilities or even just parents with a stroller \u2014 may have challenges navigating around that.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a problem that literally does not need to exist.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paquette\u2019s motion calls for a report on what would be involved in transitioning to a mandatory parking model, looking at mechanisms the city can use to require vendors to enforce parking compliance through future licences, developing suitable parking areas within the right of way, what infrastructure would be needed to establish such as system and to look at other municipalities which regulate e-scooters.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s not the first at city hall to muse about how to regulate the sprawling network. Former mayor Don Iveson griped<\/a> about the public\u2019s insistence of riding e-scooters on sidewalks within weeks of the service coming online in 2019.<\/p>\n In 2021, the city began stepping up enforcement<\/a>, issuing tickets of $100 for those caught driving on sidewalks. But as anyone walking in Edmonton has observed, the fines haven\u2019t deterred many users.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, they\u2019re not even supposed to be on the sidewalk, frankly, so I don\u2019t know why they\u2019re being parked there,\u201d said Paquette, who added having dedicated parking spots would also help the network ensure the vehicles are fully charged for the next user. He noted the vehicles are already able to tell if they\u2019re in an authorized zone or not. \u201cBasically, they just mark out a spot that they can sense when the vehicle is in that area, and if it\u2019s not, you can\u2019t actually stop the ride \u2014 you keep getting charged. So there\u2019s an incentive for folks to actually go and park in the designated areas.\u201d<\/p>\n He added he\u2019s spoken to officials in other municipalities that have allowed e-scooter networks and many had implemented a parking system from the start, but said officials could be forgiven for not anticipating how popular the service would be.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Lime said the company is happy to work with whatever system the city chooses to incorporate.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have seen a range of parking approaches succeed in different cities, including designated parking zones, free-floating models and combinations of both, and we are committed to working with Edmonton to identify solutions that best support both riders and pedestrians,\u201d said government relations leader Carling Dick. \u201cWe agree that keeping sidewalks, doorways and travel paths clear is critical. In Edmonton, Lime requires riders to park responsibly and out of the public right of way, and riders who repeatedly violate parking rules face escalating penalties, including fines, suspension and removal from the platform.\u201d<\/p>\n Dick said users are required to submit a photo of a parked e-scooter or bike when finishing their trip and their system reviews it using an A.I. analyzer.<\/p>\n Residents are encouraged to report poorly parked vehicles by emailing help-edmonton@li.me<\/a> or by scanning a QR code on the vehicle to report it and staff will come right the vehicle.<\/p>\n Paquette\u2019s motion is scheduled for discussion in May.<\/p>\n \u2014 with files from Liam Newbigging<\/p>\n ebowling@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n Related<\/p>\n Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don\u2019t miss the news you need to know \u2014 add EdmontonJournal.com<\/a> and EdmontonSun.com<\/a> to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here.<\/a><\/p>\n You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Edmonton Journal<\/a> | The Edmonton Sun.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been seven years since the city opened the streets to rentable e-scooters and e-bikes, but now one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[238439,49,48,194381,23752,238441,238442,238440],"class_list":["post-638383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-aaron-paquette","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-downtown-edmonton","tag-edmonton","tag-parking-rules","tag-transportation-device","tag-ward-dene-coun"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=638383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}