City expected to amend bylaws to allow electric scooter, bike sharing programs

A plan to roll out sharing programs for electric bikes and electric scooters onto Edmonton streets this summer still hinge on a provincial exemption to the Alberta Traffic Safety Act.

City council is keento allow the e-scooterand e-bike programsand has already voted in favour of seeking an exemption from provincial legislation.

The city's urban planning committee will discuss bylaw amendments on Tuesday.

• Electric scooters, e-bike share programs could come to Edmonton

Coun. Andrew Knack said he expects e-scooters will be more popular than e-bikes, as has been the case in other cities.

"That seems to become the biggest choice, not so much the electric bike side of things," Knack said. "Working through how we want people to use that and how active people can be in that space, that's something I'm really interested in having a conversation about."

The city had hoped to have scooter and bike sharing programs up and running by June, but Knack is worried it willtake longer since the bylaw depends on the province granting the city an exemption.

"The report suggests that it could take a few more months, which should be a little frustrating," Knack said. "Because we had first hoped to get an exemption to this process so that these companies who are ready to operate could start operating."

Under the proposed bylaw amendment, an e-scooter equipped with at least one headlight, a rear tail lamp and rear reflector would be allowed on any road with a speed limit of 50 km/h or under.

Travis.mcewan@cbc.ca