Nathalie Collard: Last Tuesday, we learned in our pages that electric scooters “had not said their last word”. What bad news! I was relieved when the City of Montreal banned them in 2020. For me, electric scooters are synonymous with nuisance and public danger. In Paris, where we still have a great tolerance for chaos, Parisians voted to ban self-service scooters. We should imitate them.
Philip Mercury: I had the opposite reaction when I learned of the return of these friendly, non-polluting little machines. What great news! You can never have too many sustainable mobility options in the city. The self-service scooters are in line with BIXI and Communauto. They are part of our time, in the way we want to think of our cities. OK, they failed their first impression in 2019. But I’m a big fan of second chances. We can learn from the mistakes made. I can’t wait to criss-cross Parc Jean-Drapeau, face in the wind, thanking the Hydro-Québec electrons for the sweat-free and effortless ride.
Nathalie Collard: If they were confined to a delimited place, I could tolerate them. But such is not the plan of all these companies registered with the register of the lobbyists to make foam their machine. The Limes, Birds, Lyfts and others want the Department of Transportation and Sustainable Mobility to change its law to allow unanchored scooters again in our cities. It would mean the potential return of scooters that zigzag between cars on the bumpy and congested streets of Montreal, driven by people who don’t always know how to control them. It’s scary.
Philip Mercury: It is not for the Limes and the Birds of this world to lay down the rules, but for the governments. If the private sector wants to follow them, let it get on board. Otherwise, let him pass. Want scooters parked in designated places? Make it mandatory and enforce it. And if the solution involves anchors like those of BIXI, why not? My impression, anyway, is that after being banned for three years, the companies have understood and will walk right. As for the dented streets, that’s another debate. But you still can’t invoke potholes to ban scooters! On that account, anything that rolls, from skateboards to trucks, should be banned.
Nathalie Collard: For the moment, there is no question of anchoring. Rather, we are talking about equipping scooters with a GPS and it would therefore be impossible to park them outside a “parking zone”. Our colleague Henri Ouellette-Vézina wrote that the company Bird had developed a technology that verifies the parking space “using the camera of your mobile phone”. Hello Big Brother! All that for the privilege of riding a two-wheeled thing? For me, it is obvious that the rental of scooters must be done in recreational or tourist areas. I’m going to be in bad faith here: are the little four-driver cars that you see in the Old Port allowed to take the streets of Montreal? Of course not. It should be the same approach for scooters.
Philip Mercury: We are able to manage a system of self-service bicycles, including several electric ones (BIXI is an undeniable success). And we wouldn’t be able to do that for scooters, which are essentially bikes without a saddle and without pedals? The model exists, let’s copy it! As for confining scooters to tourist spots… No! I dream of workers slicing through the heart of the city scampering on the REV to the office. Tourists rushing along the Lachine Canal shouting “I will come back to Montreal!” “. Citizens of all ages making fun of the Berri coast to the sound of a soft electric hum.
Nathalie Collard: Ah, so it was you who came back on your scooter singing at the top of your voice at three in the morning in 2019? More seriously, it was precisely because of the excessive number of delinquent users that the City of Montreal decided at the time to ban these “bikes without saddles and without pedals”! We issued 110 statements of offense for poor parking (this also included electric bicycles) and 333 offenses for not having respected the Highway Code. And we’re not even talking about the accidents. In any case, if ever the cities change their tune and decide to give the electric scooter a second chance, I will bring you flowers to the hospital, I promise.
Philip Mercury: It’s my principle that what happens in 2019 stays in 2019. I have no recollection of upping the ante on a scooter, but I’ll grant you one thing: there’s nothing like these scooters. two wheels to find his child’s heart. The only sound of the word – “scooter!” – is enough to cheer up the grumpiest of men. That we see the apocalypse there still amazes me. For the flowers… That’s nice, but I’ll try to be careful. I wish this time was good for scooters. I promise not to leave mine lying around. And not to sing (too loud).