A fleet of rental e-scooters in downtown Halifax could very well trigger a micro-mobility revolution in the city.
That’s what Max Rastelli, the brains behind HFX e-Scooters, is hoping for.
“It’s potentially a game changer in the way people move around the city,” said Rastelli, who’s also the owner of Halifax-based tour company Segway Nova Scotia.
“We’ve always tried to figure out how to reduce traffic congestion, how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Everybody talks about bicycles or public transit being the solution, but sometimes bicycles aren’t always convenient for some people. This an alternative, an additional piece to the puzzle.”
Three downtown locations offer a combined 32 electric scooters for rent. Fully charged, the vehicles located on the waterfront, Hollis Street and Queen Street, can run for 40 kilometres. The two-wheeled scooters are implanted with a GPS chip and the system is app operated.
So it’s a do-it-yourself, grab-and-go concept. There’s a base charge of a buck to get started and 25 cents per minute to ride. The service is offered to people 18 years and older.
“This product promises to help solve the first mile/last mile problem,” said Rastelli. “Someone needs to get somewhere quick, say a bus stop. How do they get there? When they get off the bus, how do they get to their final destination?
“Unless that first mile and last mile is convenient and cheap, what do people do? They get in their cars. If you put these vehicles where they are convenient for people it’s a great solution to help solve that first mile/last mile problem.”
E-scooters are gaining momentum across North America and beyond. Los Angeles is teeming with thousands of e-scooter rentals. Last month, the San Francisco company Lime introduced 1,000 e-scooter rentals in Calgary.
But the industry is facing growing pains. While more and more Canadian cities and provinces consider embracing e-scooters they’re being forced to adopt new laws to regulate the emerging industry.
E-scooters are permitted in Nova Scotia but neither the province nor Halifax Regional Municipality regulate their use.
Transportation Department spokesman Peter McLaughlin said the province is monitoring advancements in technology as it finalizes regulations to go with the new Traffic Safety Act. The Traffic Safety act will replace the Motor Vehicle Act once the regulations are completed.
McLaughlin didn’t say that the regulations will include rules around e-scooters.
“It is too early in the regulation development process to say if or how e-scooters will be reflected in the regulations,” he said.
Halifax regional council is looking at possible e-scooter bylaws and is awaiting a municipal staff report on third-party docked and dockless bike and scooter share that’s expected to be completed next spring or summer.
“The report will look at what bylaw changes might be required, as well as identify any issues surrounding encroachments,” said Halifax Regional Municipality spokeswoman Brynn Langille.
“As staff prepare the report they will engage with the province when appropriate.”
Then there’s the problem of scooter littering. In some places renters are permitted to leave their scooter rental wherever they like, for the next person to grab. That’s shown to be a problem is some place, resulting in a pileup of scooters on sidewalks, for example.
It’s an issue Rastelli and regulators need to confront because eventually he wants customers to simply leave their rental wherever convenient for them. For now, they must return the scooters where they found them. He’s also hoping to expand the service to the Dalhousie University campus this fall.
There’s a lot of wrinkles still left to be ironed out. But Rastelli remains optimistic about the future of his business.
“If we’re going to let them on sidewalks, what are the rules?” said Rastelli. “Should they be in a bike lane only? Are there going to be speed limits? The city has really been accommodating us. They’re letting us proceed.
“I expect next summer when we’ll get all the rules and regulations figured out.”
