City of Saskatoon to explore possibility of E-scooter pilot project

Saskatoon’s transportation committee has given administration the go-ahead to explore the possibility of an electric scooter (E-scooter) pilot project later this spring or summer.

At Monday’s committee meeting, Ben Quattrini — who described himself as representing a Saskatoon venture capital and tech firm — has partnered with a company called “Roll Scooters.”

He said an E-scooter program would complement other forms of transportation in the city and would be based on an app to locate and unlock the electric scooters for $1. The unit could be used for 35 cents per minute, or about $21 per hour.

“The nice thing about micromobility is that it has been in Canada for years,” said Quattrini. “Calgary has a very successful program. They just switched their framework from a pilot to a permanent framework, which is nice. Ottawa, Kelowna (and) Edmonton all have very successful programs.”

Quattrini said E-scooters could be used in bike lanes, on shared paths and potentially even on some roadways that have speed limits of 50 kilometres per hour or less.

A website called “yxemotors.com” describes how the scooters would be used.

An app would show the locations of all charged E-scooters. Certain zones where the scooters cannot be parked would also be marked. A user would find their “roll,” scan a barcode with the app and the scooter would then be useable.

To finish the ride, the website indicates the “roll” would be parked by the curbside of a sidewalk so it doesn’t block sidewalks, intersections, ramps or entrances. The user would then take a picture of the scooter and submit it.

The map currently shows potential scooter locations in downtown Saskatoon, Stonebridge, University Heights, The University of Saskatchewan, Lakewood, Lawson Heights and along Eighth Street.

There were plenty of questions from councillors including scooter parking, street clutter and safety issues.

“Can you tell me about what your team would plan to do to kind of mitigate that, and what commitment you’d be looking to offer in terms of the cleanliness of the operation when the units aren’t in use?” asked Coun. Hilary Gough.

Depending on the pilot framework, Quattrini said the units could only be used or dropped off in certain approved locations, but he did admit some units would likely be left where they shouldn’t be.

“We will know that based on the data that’s constantly coming back into our software system, and that’s why we’ve committed to doing this in a responsible way, having our operations team on the ground, 24 hours a day, seven days a week automatically … relocating and charging units,” he said.

Before any of that is even a consideration, some local traffic bylaws would have to be amended, and a change to the province’s Traffic Safety Act would have to be addressed, said city solicitor Derek Kowalski.

“In order for E-scooters to be able to be operated on roadways, there are actually amendments required to the Traffic Safety Act and a number of amendments required to certain bylaws,” he said.

“I actually spoke to SGI … It would be more than just a simple exemption. In order to operate on city sidewalks and in city parks, we would need amendments to the traffic bylaw and the parks use bylaw as well, as right now vehicles are not able to operate on city sidewalks.”

Administration will provide a framework and outline how a pilot project could be delivered. SGI and other provincial counterparts will be consulted for any steps that would be necessary.

A report is to be presented to the transportation committee sometime in April.