Lime e-scooter use higher in Calgary than 130 other cities, company says as pilot project called a success

A two-year pilot project has demonstrated that Calgarians have whole-heartedly taken to e-scooters and a council committee wants people to be able to use them in more parts of the city.

The transportation committee heard on Wednesday that Calgary's two-year e-scooter pilot recorded 1.9 million trips made by 200,000 unique users of the three operators of rental e-scooters in the city Lime, Bird and Roll.

One of those companies, Lime, found that during the summer months, its scooters in Calgary had higher usage than in any of the 130 cities around the world where it operates.

The transportation committee is recommending council allow e-scooters to be used on any street that doesn't have painted lines on it, but maintain the rules banning them on downtown streets and busier roads.

Coun. Jeff Davison says the pilot worked because people have embraced the scooters.

"Calgary is the most widely used city in the world on e-scooters, which is something I don't think any of us expected," he said.

Davison says technology can be adapted to keep scooter speeds down in certain areas and even to disable them in busy pedestrian areas like the Eau Claire pedestrian pathway.

Council will vote on the new rules next month.