More parking areas for shared e-scooters and e-bikes could be on the horizon in Edmonton, councillors sitting on a city committee heard Tuesday. Administration, in a report to council’s urban planning committee, says the city should focus on targeted pilot projects, more vendor accountability, more designated parking areas and tech-driven enforcement measures. Councillors heard that extensive data gathered by micromobility vendors can provide insights into how the city can strategize where parking areas can be established. The report comes a week after the city introduced a pilot program in Mill Woods for shared e-scooters and e-bikes that uses specific parking and operating zones for them. Staff said the city’s micromobility program has matured into a mainstream transportation service and that future improvements should focus on operational refinements rather than restrictions. Staff told Mayor Andrew Knack, after he asked about reviewing fees to ensure both riders and vendors are satisfied by them, that they are looking at the whole picture of costs and what’s feasible for all. “I think part of that conversation is if we’re doing that right and we’re actually able to create more opportunities to reach more areas, that, in turn, potentially helps the vendor be able to serve more customers and gain more people into the ridership,” Knack said at the meeting. Administration delivered the report after council asked them in May to examine moving e-scooter parking to a geofenced model. The report said ridership of shared micromobility vehicles increased 190 per cent between 2022 and 2025. Staff said users took more than 1.4-million trips on shared e-scooters and e-bikes last year. Staff in its report said while the number of trips being taken by riders has increased each year, the number of complaints related to them has stayed stable. It was found that the average distance of a micromobility trip is 2.2 kilometres, that an average trip lasts 13 minutes and 26 seconds, and that about 20 per cent of trips start or end within 100 metres of a transit facility such as an LRT station or bus centre. They claim these numbers support the assertion that the shared e-scooters and e-bikes are increasingly being used as a first-and-last-kilometre transit connector rather than for recreational use. In terms of sidewalk use by e-scooters and e-bikes, which is not allowed in the city, the committee heard the technology to monitor their use on them is not yet available. Staff said, however, future agreements with vendors will include it.
