Since July 30, it has been illegal to drive on public roads in Quebec with two- or three-wheeled electric vehicles that look like motorcycles without being approved. A regulation whose understanding remains unclear a month after its appearance and which leads to “tolerance” on the part of certain police officers.
“Before, in the legal sense, they were electric bikes,” says Rachid Fassiri, owner of ZoomRide, a Montreal store that sells scooters and other electric vehicles. Their motor limited to 500 W and their maximum speed of 32 km/h prevented them from being registered with the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ). The pedals also helped with the classification as an electric bike, even if they are often useless, the vehicle being too heavy to be used without the propulsion of the motor. Circulating both on the road and on bike paths, these vehicles already found themselves in a grey area between the electric bike and the properly registered scooter.
How do you know if your vehicle is affected by this regulation? The Ministry of Transport has determined certain criteria that make the circulation of a two- or three-wheeled electric vehicle illegal. If a vehicle meets one or more of the following criteria, it cannot circulate on public roads:
• The vehicle is equipped with a body that partially or completely covers the frame or another component;
• The seat or saddle is not adjustable;
• There is a place to rest your feet other than pedals, such as a footrest;
• The tires and wheels look like those of a motorcycle or moped
• The motor has a power of less than 500 W and cannot reach a top speed of more than 32 km/h.
A certain “tolerance”
Between July 30 and August 26, the Montreal Police Department issued 87 tickets under the ministerial order. For the same period, the Laval Police Department issued none. The novelty of this ministerial order leads some police officers to show tolerance toward offenders.
As Chrystian Hamel was returning from work on his electric scooter on July 30, the date the practice became illegal, an officer from the Régie intermunicipale de police Thérèse-De Blainville (RIPTB), which serves the region, stopped him. “He explained to me that it was no longer allowed without giving me any tickets,” says Mr. Hamel.
RIPTB officer Éric Huard confirms that there is a “notion of tolerance” during the first few days following the publication of a ministerial order. “We have just received the ministerial order. We are still in discussions with the SAAQ to obtain the regulations that we will be able to apply with regard to the reports,” he explains. “It is often a complex process because we do not receive the articles of law that we can apply when the ministerial order is made. So, it is difficult for the police to put this in place immediately. For the moment, we are still at that stage,” he says.
For example, Officer Huard compares the “tolerance period” to installing a new stop sign in a neighbourhood. “Some police officers will prefer to raise awareness,” he illustrates.