If you’re still riding your e-scooter on major Burnaby roads, like Hastings Street, Kingsway, Gaglardi Way and about 20 others, you’re likely doing it illegally, according to local bylaws amended this month.
The province’s Electric Kick Scooter Pilot Project Regulation allows use of e-scooters on major roads under certain conditions, but Burnaby city council has decided to go a step further.
On May 12, it amended its street and traffic bylaw to forbid riding e-scooters on any “major road network or arterial road” unless it has a separated bike lane or multi-use pathway running alongside it.
“Those are not environments that are conducive for this type of mobility device,” the city’s transportation director Amy Choh said of the city’s major roads, which also include Canada Way, 10th Avenue, Willingdon Avenue and more.
The new bylaw also forbids riding e-scooters on sidewalks, with headphones, without a bell and in marked crosswalks unless they have crossride pavement markings.
And another amendment to the city’s parks bylaw has made it illegal to operate e-scooters in any local park “unless the park or portion thereof has been specifically designated for such use.”
The amendments come as injuries involving e-scooters are on the rise across the country, according to data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information.
SHANE MACKICHAN Police have not yet confirmed what role, if any, an e-scooter played in a May 2 crash on Hastings Street that sent two children to hospital with serious injuries.
In Burnaby, a collision on Hastings Street earlier this month sent two children to hospital with serious injuries.
Photos of the scene showed a damaged e-scooter and two helmets, but police have not yet confirmed what role, if any, the e-scooter played in the collision.
Burnaby RCMP has conducted some recent enforcement around e-scooter use, according to the detachment, but the focus since the city joined the province’s e-scooter pilot project last year has been on education.
Police and city staff were at Edmonds Community Centre on March 28 for an e-scooter safety event, and local Mounties joined city bylaw officers for another event on e-scooter regulations on April 14.
During Bike to Work Week between May 30 and June 2, Burnaby RCMP said officers will be on e-bikes making sure the rules around e-scooters and e-bikes are being followed.
Choh said more educational outreach, including to local schools, is to come.
“We need to let people know whether the operation of these devices is allowed or not and how to do it safely,” she said.