Ontario has quietly extended a five-year pilot allowing electric scooters to be ridden in some towns and cities until the end of the decade, a move critics say avoids public scrutiny and acts as a “complete slap in the face” to vulnerable and older people.
At the beginning of 2020, the Ford government introduced a micro-mobility pilot, allowing municipalities that opted in to create rules allowing electric scooters to be ridden within their boundaries.
The pilot program, which was met with fierce opposition from disability advocates, was due to expire at the end of 2024.
Shortly before it was due to expire, however, the government added another five years to the clock, meaning the now 10-year pilot will be in place until the end of the decade.
“Not only is this extension unnecessary, it is a complete slap in the face to vulnerable people with disabilities and seniors across Ontario,” David Lepofsky, chair of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance told Global News.
“We did not need a first five years of a pilot but having conducted that pilot, the debate is over, the evidence is overwhelming: electric scooters endanger vulnerable people with disabilities and seniors as pedestrians.”
Lepofsky, who is blind, has actively campaigned against the scooters over the past five years, appearing at city councils considering introducing them to explain how their introduction can endanger seniors and people with limited vision.
“We were public about these serious dangers in 2019 before this pilot was even established,” he said. “The government of Ontario systemically rejected and disregarded everything we said, and we couldn’t even get a meeting with the minister of transportation.”
While the City of Toronto appeared to listen to his concerns and has twice voted not to introduce an e-scooter pilot, other large cities opted in. Ottawa, Mississauga and Brampton — Ontario’s second, third and fourth largest cities — all have pilots underway.
“Since the introduction of the pilot, only 16 municipalities have opted in,” a spokesperson for the minister of transportation told Global News. “(The Ministry of Transportation) has heard from municipalities that they would like to participate but due to the fast-approaching pilot expiry date of November 27, 2024, they have refrained.”
Lepofsky — who also pointed to growing concerns about electric battery fires as another reason not to extend the pilot — said the extension was bad for people with disabilities.
“The Ford government, with five years of proof, did not impose any new protections for people with disabilities,” he said.
“It is important for me to emphasize both times when the City of Toronto studied e-scooters carefully and said no, it was in no small part because of concerns raised by people with disabilities and seniors.”
The extension has also raised questions over whether the government is essentially legalizing electric scooters without passing legislation or new rules to make the change permanent.
“I would say that the government keeps extending pilots when they don’t want to make decisions — it’s frankly, it’s bad government,” Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles said.
“Learn from the pilot, look at the expertise, build policy around proven results.”
The Ministry of Transportation said extending the pilot would allow more municipalities to join, creating a more diverse number of cities to gather data from and come to an ultimate decision.
“MTO continues to work closely with its municipal and regional partners to understand the evolving data collection landscape and to develop standards for collection and reporting that allow us to consolidate and analyze information at the provincial level,” they said.
Lepofsky, however, believes the move could be to avoid scrutiny.
“They certainly don’t have the courage of facing the legislature with a bill and having hearings on it and having it publicly debated,” he said.
“Instead, they’re approving these in a backdoor, secret, closed-door meeting with cabinet where there are no public hearings, there’s no public debate and there’s no accountability.”