Until then tolerated on the roads of Quebec, electric scooters will be able to ride legally this Thursday, to the great relief of users and sellers of these small cars. However, the regulatory framework imposed by Quebec does not have consensus among scooter riders and its application may pose a problem for police forces.
On the first day of the legalization of electric scooters, Thursday, the Montreal Police Service (SVPM) plans to conduct an operation to raise awareness and inform users on Le Plateau-Mont-Royal.
The objective is “to inform users” of the rules governing electric scooters and not to give tickets, specifies SPVM spokesperson Caroline Labelle. The police force plans to evolve its intervention strategies “according to the observations made on the ground”.
Electric scooter enthusiasts will be able to travel on streets where the speed limit is 50 km/h or less. Motor power should not exceed 500 watts. The speed of the scooters must be limited to 25 km/h, through a control application. These standards may be difficult for police to enforce due to their technical nature.
Owners of specialist shops and scooter enthusiasts welcome the legal framework coming into force on Thursday with relief.
“Before, you could have any model, even some scooters that go 120 km/h, bought online. There was no legislation, it was more dangerous, people could do anything, ”explains Thibault Sargenton, director of the DYAD company, which sells electric scooters, rue Prince-Arthur, in Montreal.
“The fact that we have a law, that it is regulated, makes it easier for everyone to work and, for us, to sell a specific product,” he adds.
The merchant made sure to adapt its vehicles so that they comply with the new standards of the Ministère des Transports et de la Mobilité durable.
He thus sells scooters equipped with an application allowing the speed to be blocked at 25 km/h and to be unblocked for recreational purposes. A warning and prevention message is then displayed to discourage users from exceeding the legal speed. The control application also makes it possible to block a scooter remotely in the event of theft.
Currently, several shops still display scooters with characteristics that do not comply with the standards of the Ministry of Transport, some models that can reach 110 km / h and are equipped with motors often exceeding 500 Watts, noted The duty.
Quebec on wheels
As legalization nears, the director of DYAD says he has sensed a growing interest in electric scooters. “We have three types of customers: those for whom it will be pure leisure, those who will use it as a work tool, for delivery, and those who will use it mainly to go to their workplace, on a daily basis”, illustrates Thibault Sargenton.
Martin Marcil, truck repairer, travels around sixty kilometers every day on an electric scooter to go back and forth to his work, from Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu to Saint-Bruno. He has accumulated almost 6200 km since he started this routine three years ago. “It has become a means of transport”, observes Mr. Marcil, who is also delighted with the good understanding between road users regarding this new mode of transport.
For his part, Vincent Labonté prefers to ride in Old Quebec for the simple pleasure of it. He has been traveling there for a year and a half on a scooter at a maximum speed of 30 km/h. The sales manager of an RV company now covets a scooter that can easily reach 70 km/h, but not for its speed. Autonomy remains for him the first criterion, since he travels several kilometers at a time during his outings.
“We go to the edge of a cycle path by car, then we take off for walks of 30 to 45 kilometers”, explains the man in his twenties. He says “stay on the cycle paths and avoid the garnotte paths”, which are less suitable for this type of vehicle.
Montrealer Chinh Ngo has been using the scooter for six years to get to work. He alone has accumulated 10,000 km of scooters. He is also the administrator and founder of a self-help and safety page for more than 10,000 electric scooter users. The number of subscribers has doubled in the last year, a sign, according to him, of a growing interest in this mode of transport.
According to Mr. Ngo, it is important not to generalize the behaviors observed during the mess of self-service scooters that the City of Montreal had banned in 2019. “People have a bad image because of rental scooters. »
The three scooter riders interviewed by Le Devoir remain a touch of skepticism about certain standards imposed by the Ministry, in particular with regard to the limitation of the motor to 500 Watts, the weight of the vehicle and the methods of signaling with the arms. Limiting them, “this is not what will stop accidents and injuries”, believes Mr. Ngo.
On one wheel
gyroroues, electric vehicles consisting of a wheel with a frame and foot support, are also concerned, their legalization based on the same standards as scooters.
“I live in Beloeil. When I come to Montreal, I take the train and, at the exit of the station, I use my unicycle to complete the journey,” says Guillaume Herga, co-founder of NOAIO, a micromobility company specializing in unicycles. “For me, it has a much more practical aspect than the scooter, but it requires learning and a certain balance”, raises Mr. Herga, who admires the compact aspect of the vehicle, allowing it to be transported easily.
Like the director of DYAD, Mr. Herga sees enthusiasm for this type of vehicle among his customers, mainly aged 30 to 60.