{"id":833904,"date":"2026-07-29T15:19:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T15:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/833904\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T15:19:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T15:19:18","slug":"a-bit-of-a-dogs-breakfast-red-deer-mayor-wants-province-wide-rules-for-e-scooters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/833904\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A bit of a dog\u2019s breakfast\u2019: Red Deer mayor wants province-wide rules for e-scooters"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Spurred by mounting safety complaints, a recent serious collision and the arrival of a new e-scooter operator, Red Deer\u2019s mayor is asking the province to create legislation about e-scooters and safety in Alberta.<\/p>\n

Mayor Cindy Jeffries tells CBC News she is also proposing a motion calling for provincial action during the Alberta Municipalities Convention in the fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, it’s a bit of a dog’s breakfast, quite frankly, in who’s enforcing what,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we’re consistent across the province on what’s allowed and enforceable and what needs to be licensed or not, then everybody understands the rules and it doesn’t differ from municipality to municipality.\u201d<\/p>\n

The current operator for e-scooters in Central Alberta, Neuron Mobility, has been acquired by San Francisco-based company Lime.<\/p>\n

Private e-scooters are not regulated and cannot be operated on roads or sidewalks in the province. However, the provincial government has developed a pilot project for rentals in certain communities.<\/p>\n

\"TwoTwo people ride e-scooters in downtown Red Deer. (Lina Elsaadi\/CBC)<\/p>\n

Concerns about safety are common towards e-scooters, said Jeffries. They often involve where scooters are parked, helmet usage, and e-scooters driven on trails, sidewalks or roads.<\/p>\n

Earlier in June, RCMP responded to a serious injury collision involving a car and an e-scooter north of Red Deer.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old driver of the e-scooter, a resident of Red Deer, was transported to hospital in serious but stable condition.<\/p>\n

Two people are seen riding Lime e-scooters on the river pathway system in Calgary. (Monty Kruger\/CBC)<\/p>\n

\u201cMore and more people have access to privately owned e-scooters and they’ve recognized that it’s a fairly easy way to get around and probably for some, an affordable mode of transportation.,” said Jeffries.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo a few things have changed in that space, and so our ability to regulate privately owned e-scooters is an issue I think that all municipalities are facing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Concerns extend across Central Alberta<\/p>\n

Red Deer is not the only city in Central Alberta with similar concerns. Sylvan Lake is reviewing its Traffic Safety Bylaw, which currently does not mention e-scooters. Mayor Megan Hanson asked the public on her Facebook page for feedback about the devices. Many people responded with calls for restraint.<\/p>\n

“They should only be allowed on the road because of how fast they go,\u201d said resident Dana Sales. \u201cThey should have to wear protective gear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blackfalds\u2019 council passed a motion welcoming Lime to the community, but also asked Lime to commit to routine maintenance and public safety.<\/p>\n

Carling Dick, Lime\u2019s government relations lead, told CBC News in a statement that they are \u201chaving conversations with all the new municipalities about these issues and are building programs to meet the unique needs of every new city partner and setting up programs for \u00a0 \u00a0 success from day one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dick added that the new rental e-scooters will launch in the communities in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cGenerally, municipalities and provincial governments establish the rules for e-scooter programs, including requirements related to age limits, helmets, where devices can operate, parking, and other safety measures,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A statement from Alberta\u2019s Ministry of Transportation and Economic Corridors said the province is using data from municipal rental pilot projects to guide future safety legislation that may eventually include privately owned e-scooters.<\/p>\n

\u201cTransportation and Economic Corridors continues to identify future options for the deployment of e-scooters, which may include the use of privately owned e-scooters,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n

\u201cData collected from the pilot will be analyzed and used to shape future legislation around the operation of e-scooters in Alberta.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":833905,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":["post-833904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-edmonton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833904","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=833904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}