The Vancouver park board plans to tweak its bylaws to allow e-bikes and electric kick scooters on designated cycling paths in park-controlled areas of the city.
The proposed changes come as Vancouver is set to launch an e-scooter ride-share program and as the use of micromobility devices continues to increase.
As part of the plan, city council recently approved traffic bylaw changes making scooters legal on streets with speed limits of 50 km/h or less and on the Stanley Park seawall. The latest bylaw change would extend access to park pathways and the section of the seawall under park board control.
For safety, the city engineering department is being asked to set up geo-fencing on shared scooters to digitally control their speed, especially in high-traffic areas such as the seawall.
The operator chosen to run the shared scooter program would also work with staff to restrict scooters from areas where e-bikes are already not allowed, such as along busy pedestrian paths. E-scooter speeds would otherwise be limited to speeds of 25 km/h or less under provincial rules.
“Counts from 2023 along a selection of bike routes in Vancouver suggest a 25 per cent year-over-year increase in the number of e-scooters.”
Scooters now range between three and 11 per cent of active transportation trips in the city, with the highest volumes near the city centre, according to a report being presented to the Vancouver park board on Monday.
The report notes recent UBC surveys found “people using bicycles, pedal-assisted e-bikes and e-scooters are generally comfortable sharing a path.”
Staff are also looking into the cost of installing and maintaining charging stations in city parks to make e-scooters more convenient.
Expanding e-bike and scooter access and availability is part of a 30-year master plan to improve transit and active transportation connectivity and improve access to parks and other amenities in Vancouver.
Private rentals are already allowed and several companies have launched in recent years. The park board plan to run its own program aimed to make scooter access more equitable and affordable.
“The city has been actively promoting sustainability and reductions in carbon emissions through bold targets, including having two-thirds of trips in Vancouver made by active transportation and transit by 2030,” the report said.
The bylaw change aligns with a provincial pilot, recently extended through 2028, that allows e-scooters on protected bike lanes and minor streets. “Since the start of the provincial pilot in 2021, the use of e-scooters continues to increase,” noted the report.
Vancouver has 330 linear kilometres in its cycling network, including 103 km of physically protected lanes and paths. About 38 km of those cycling paths are in parks, including nearly half of the city’s seaside greenway from Spanish Banks Park through False Creek and around Stanley Park to Coal Harbour.
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