By Lyonel Doherty, Times Chronicle
The not-so-clear rules around e-scooters is prompting Oliver town council to seek more information before it amends its traffic bylaw.
On Nov. 28 council discussed prohibiting e-scooters from sidewalks, similar to rules for skateboards and bicycles. But as it turns out, it’s more complicated than that.
In September the town was approved as a pilot community for electric kick scooters. Therefore, it must indicate in a bylaw where these scooters are permitted to operate.
Director of Development Services Randy Houle said the intention is to include e-scooters as a secondary mode of transportation in Oliver, but to prohibit them from sidewalks and crosswalks.
As for speed, he doesn’t recommend limiting how fast they can go because that would be too difficult to enforce.
Councillor Petra Veintimilla said the town is trying to increase active transportation by encouraging people to use alternate modes. But if people are prohibited from operating e-scooters on sidewalks, that means pushing them onto the highway which is not safe, she pointed out.
But Chief Administrative Officer Ed Chow said the province’s website prohibits e-scooters on sidewalks.
Houle said since skateboards and bicycles are not allowed on sidewalks, it only makes sense to prohibit e-scooters too.
But Veintimilla said she is quite sure that people ride e-scooters on Kelowna’s sidewalks. Houle said it would be worth researching the issue to see what other communities are doing. Council agreed to send the report back to staff for more information prior to amending the bylaw.
