Reporting having been hit by a scooter traveling in the wrong direction on a cycle path, a Montreal cyclist denounces the tolerance of the authorities towards motorized vehicles circulating on lanes which should nevertheless be reserved for bicycles.
The event took place last Wednesday, October 4 on the Willowdale Avenue cycle path, near the University of Montreal. It was 8:10 a.m. and Anna Morineau, 23, was going to work by bike.
On the phone, she says she saw two young people from a distance, one on a Bixi and the other on a scooter, who were chatting and occupying the entire width of the track. She made signs and called for the scooter driver to pull over. In vain. He heads straight towards her. Unable to avoid it, she is caught and flies, hitting her head on the ground.
His helmet did not prevent him from suffering a concussion which required him to stop work for three weeks. She was also left with severe bruising to one hand, knee and shoulder.
Allowances
Anna Morineau says she is slowly getting over it. She also published a message on Facebook on Monday in which she described the accident. What she finds unfair is that she cannot be compensated by the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ) for the injuries she suffered and her loss of income, even if she holds a license. driving and was hit by a motor vehicle.
“It was an electric scooter with fake bicycle pedals on the side, and what’s more, it’s not registered. This means that it is considered [comme une] “motorized electric bicycle”. As a result, even if the scooter is three or four times my weight on the cycle path, it still has the right to be there,” she laments.
Anna Morineau also urges the City of Montreal to better protect cyclists. “The City is building lots of cycle paths, but they are not very safe when you consider everything,” she said, referring to the presence of electric scooters and motorcycles on the cycling infrastructure. “We’ve been seeing scooters on cycle paths for a long time. We encourage sustainable mobility, but at what cost? »
Legal vagueness
For Magali Bebronne, director of programs at Vélo Québec, this accident clearly illustrates the legal uncertainty in which electric scooters find themselves. The Quebec Ministry of Transport is also working on a project aimed at clarifying the definition of what an electrically assisted bicycle is in order to exclude scooters. But changes are slow to come. “We have been waiting since 2021 for the definition to be tightened,” says Mme Bebronne.
“It is certain that we can have collisions with other cyclists and find ourselves just as badly caught, but we know that these machines are heavier and faster and that the damage in the event of a collision is potentially more important. »
The question of compensation also remains problematic. In 2022, Vélo Québec called for access to compensation for all road victims, even in cases where no motorized vehicle is involved in the accident. “If the scooter had been considered a motor vehicle, [Anna Morineau] would have now had access to compensation, she also notes. And she has a driver’s license, but she’s overdrawn because she’s on a bike. »
According to her, the “dummy” bicycle pedals added to scooters are only useful to qualify these vehicles as electrically assisted bicycles and allow owners to avoid registration requirements.
It was not possible on Monday to obtain comments from the SAAQ and the Ministry of Transport.