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Canada: in Montreal, the disaster of electric scooters is well forgotten

A rare electric scooter on the streets of Montreal, March 30, 2023. © Léopold Picot / RFI

Text by: Léopold Picot Follow

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Three years ago, the mayor of Montreal decided to put an end to self-service scooters on the streets of Quebec's economic capital. If their presence does not seem to be lacking to the inhabitants because of the lightning passage and their low attractiveness, the official opposition of the town hall asks for a new deployment, without repeating the mistakes of the past.

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From our correspondent in Montreal,

While the city of Paris is preparing to ask Parisians if they want to keep self-service scooters, Montreal has already made the decision to ban them, three years ago. A ban justified by the chaotic operation of the service during an experiment in the streets of the city.

Yet, listening to the vast majority of Montrealers on the streets, there have never been self-service scooters in their city. It must be said that the experimentation was fast, and stopped just before the coronavirus crisis, which made a little more impression.

A radical ban

For nine months, from June 2019 to February 2020, Montrealers were able to discover self-service electric scooters, as part of one of the few pilot projects in Quebec.

Quickly, incivilities multiply and the operator lets himself be overwhelmed. "I have friends who did anything, who let them hang around even drove them on the sidewalks, in the streets," says Mathilde, 21, before adding "it's a shame that people didn't know how to stand, because I think the concept is really great!" According to the city, only 20% of the scooters used during this period were parked in the right locations.

For the mayor, it was absurd to mobilize public law enforcement resources to ensure the profits of a private company, especially since the service was not as attractive as hoped. "Montreal does not want to turn into a scooter police," summarized Eric Alan Caldwell, responsible for mobility within the municipality. Three years later, the position of the town hall has not changed. "We have no intention of repeating the experiment. We rent them this summer in a large park near Montreal, but users will be prohibited from exceeding the limits of the site, "says Philippe Sabourin, the administrative spokesman for the city of Montreal.

► Read also: Electric scooters: these big cities at war against "anarchy" [article of 2018]

Social issue

Unlike Paris, Montreal quickly backed down on scooters. But it is not only behaviors that explain the abandonment of deployment: users have also responded less. Thomas is French, he lived in both cities, and has some clues to explain the lack of excitement of Montrealers. "It was a failure, the scooters were mostly concentrated in the business center, while Montreal is much larger than Paris," he says. Indeed, studies on the subject note that self-service scooters remain the prerogative of the rather wealthy classes of the population, due to a rather high rental price. As the town hall aims for sustainable development accessible to all, this argument has also been used against experimentation.

Another issue is the quality of the roads. The law simply forbids electric scooters to circulate on bike paths, so it was necessary to circulate on the road, where potholes are much more numerous. Mathieu, 25, is a skateboarder, he rides a bike, likes to walk, but he would never see himself riding a scooter in Montreal. "When you're cycling, your body balance is pretty balanced, despite the holes, the ribs. On a scooter, you feel much too vulnerable," says the young rider.

Legal uncertainty?

The electric scooter nevertheless retains an asset for its defenders, here as elsewhere: it would be more ecological. If this assertion is difficult to dispute if a car user abandons it to switch to the scooter, the ecological nature of the large-scale deployment of motorized vehicles, often balanced in the water or crashed, leaves many Montrealers skeptical.

Some, however, are trying to promote this micromobility. Guillaume launched his store selling individual electric vehicles in 2018, and has just opened a store in the heart of Montreal, despite the global ban. Indeed, an individual can still ride a scooter in Montreal... provided you are at home or in a parking lot. "Thanks to the experiment, we saw an increase in sales [...]. The rules are unclear, some cities and police are more flexible and tolerate scooters as long as the user respects the rules of the road, "says the manager, very optimistic.

For the official opposition in the mayor's office, these vehicles should be allowed to deal with climate change. Ensemble Montréal would like BIXI, the equivalent of the Vélib' in Montreal, to launch its own service to prevent the chaos of experimentation from starting again. It is up to BIXI to prove that it will be able to manage self-service scooters, and that it is not the very principle of this ultra-individual mode of transport that is problematic.

► Also listen: Report - In France, electric scooters are becoming increasingly popular

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