By Lyonel Doherty, Times Chronicle
An electric scooter company is trying to woo the Town of Oliver to approve a pilot project in Canada’s Wine Capital.
Josh Boileau, regional general manager of Sparrow Scooters, says Oliver would be an excellent match for BC’s Provincial Electric Kick Scooter Pilot Program.
Boileau said Sparrow’s trial program at Spirit Ridge in the fall of 2021 was received with great interest. He noted that local businesses have been enthusiastic to partner with Sparrow to offer e-scooter rentals.
Boileau said this service would be ideal in Oliver for several reasons: the town is small with lots of locally owned businesses; e-scooters will reduce traffic congestion, making for a more pleasant urban environment while drastically reducing carbon emissions; a great option for hotel guests; boost the local economy; and a pleasant climate would extend the operating season from March to October.
Sparrow provides and maintains parking racks for scooters at business partner locations. Boileau said they can update their geofencing (GPS technology) at any time to set slow riding zones and no-ride zones.
“We are able to share data with the city, offering insights on where our customers are riding.”
Boileau said the Okanagan has seen potential benefits of e-scooters. For example, he noted the City of Kelowna discovered the following from its program: 33 per cent of scooter trips replaced cars; 148,500 km of riding was completed, eliminating 29 metric tonnes of C02 as compared to driving cars; and a 0.025 per cent injury rate (51 injuries, from 203,000 rides).
Sparrow e-scooters are built with integrated GPS, Bluetooth, phone chargers and swappable batteries.
These scooters can reach a speed of 24 km/h, which is the limit that provincial government has set.
Boileau presented the pilot project idea to Oliver town council on Monday.
