Electric scooters back in Ottawa, longer hours offered
Electric scooters are once again rolling down the streets of Ottawa ahead of another summer, providing residents with a convenient mode of transportation for short trips in the downtown core.
Rebecca Kovacs and her friends are visiting Ottawa from Vancouver, and using e-scooters to explore downtown.
- Sign up now for daily CTV News Ottawa newsletters
- The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App
"We're kind of just cruising around, exploring the town," said Kovacs.
Duru Gundogdu adds, "I mean, this is kind of like my first time in Ottawa, so doing this is kind of fun, getting to know the city, you know?"
The city kicked off its fifth year last Thursday, marking the return of the popular e-scooters to the capital.
"It's a really great example of working together with the community to make the program work for, frankly, all members of the community," said Austin Spademan, Bird Canada's head of government partnerships.
Operating hours are extended this year.
"It used to cut off at 11 p.m. and now the City of Ottawa has extended the operating hours to 1 a.m., which gives a lot more flexibility to our riders to basically have a reliable mode of transportation any time of the day," Spademan said.
Orléans South-Navan Coun. Catherine Kitts, vice-chair of the city's transportation committee, highlighted the safety measures accompanying the extended hours, including a sobriety test requirement for riders using the scooters after 11 p.m.
"And because we're going later into the evening after 11 p.m., we're requiring that there's actually a sobriety test with the technology, just to make sure that it's safe. You know, if people are using them after they're out and about, we want to make sure everybody's safe," Kitts said.
The sobriety test is a series of skill-testing questions or a test of your reaction time on the app.
The extended hours apply to several neighborhoods, including Downtown, Westboro, Sandy Hill, The Glebe, and Vanier; however, riders in the ByWard Market area will still be cut-off at 11 p.m. The city plans to begin the season with 900 e-scooters and may increase the number to 1,200 if necessary.
"Since launching in Ottawa, people have traveled over half a million kilometres on their own e-scooters, which is quite incredible. That's had an estimated impact of, inverting 35 tonnes of CO2 emissions since we launched in the city," said Isaac Ransom, Neuron Mobility Canada's head of corporate affairs.
The e-scooters not only help people travel more efficiently, they are also helping the local economy.
"When riders are scooting around the city, 73 per cent of these trips are resulting in a purchase, which is pretty fantastic for main street businesses with an average of $32 per person. And so it is having a significant economic impact on the city of Ottawa," Ransom said.
During the 2023 season, approximately 50,000 users took nearly 180,000 trips around the city, averaging about 1,000 trips per day.
"Every year we kind of take the feedback we're getting from the community, to bring that back to the companies. And so they're becoming more and more widely accepted. I think there was a lot of resistance initially, and I think now people are embracing them," Kitts said.
"The one thing that I would change, rather than doing by the minute, tourists, they might want to just take it for an hour. So do kind of like an hourly rate." Said Kovacs.
This year's e-scooter season will run until Nov. 15.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
From outer space? Sask. farmers baffled after discovering strange wreckage in field
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
This iconic Canadian song is turning 50
Andy Kim's 'Rock Me Gently' is marking a major milestone, as it celebrates its 50th anniversary.
Oprah Winfrey: I set an unrealistic standard for dieting
Oprah Winfrey said on Thursday evening that she has long played a role in promoting unhealthy and unrealistic diets.
Prince Harry, Meghan arrive in Nigeria to champion the Invictus Games and meet with wounded soldiers
Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan, arrived in Nigeria on Friday to champion the Invictus Games, which he founded to aid the rehabilitation of wounded and sick servicemembers and veterans, among them Nigerian soldiers fighting a 14-year war against Islamic extremists.
Countries struggle to draft 'pandemic treaty' to avoid mistakes made during COVID
After the coronavirus pandemic triggered once-unthinkable lockdowns, upended economies and killed millions, leaders at the World Health Organization and worldwide vowed to do better in the future. Years later, countries are still struggling to come up with an agreed-upon plan for how the world might respond to the next global outbreak.
Toronto police called to Drake's Bridle Path mansion for another alleged intruder on Thursday
Toronto police say a man who allegedly attempted to access Drake’s Bridle Path property was taken to hospital on Thursday after an altercation with security guards.
Ontario family receives massive hospital bill as part of LTC law, refuses to pay
A southwestern Ontario woman has received an $8,400 bill from a hospital in Windsor, Ont., after she refused to put her mother in a nursing home she hated -- and she says she has no intention of paying it.
Flat tire on a highway? Here's why you shouldn't try to fix it
If you're cruising down a highway and realize you have a flat tire, you may want to think twice before stopping to fix it on the side of the road.
Storm-battered U.S. South is again under threat. A boy swept into a drain fights for his life
Dangerous storms crashed over parts of the U.S. South on Thursday even as the region cleaned up from earlier severe weather that spawned tornadoes, killed at least three people, and gravely injured a boy who was swept into a storm drain as he played in a flooded street.