{"id":9492,"date":"2025-11-27T17:09:32","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T21:09:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=9492"},"modified":"2025-11-27T17:09:32","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T21:09:32","slug":"queens-councillors-ponder-new-rules-for-e-scooters-e-bikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2025\/11\/27\/queens-councillors-ponder-new-rules-for-e-scooters-e-bikes\/","title":{"rendered":"Queens councillors ponder new rules for e-scooters, e-bikes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

The Region of Queens wants ‘clear, enforceable provisions’ around e-bike and e-scooter use. (Mercea Iancu via Pixabay)<\/p><\/div>\n

The Region of Queens wants to figure out how to regulate e-scooters and e-bikes in the municipality.<\/span><\/p>\n

And that could include allowing them on sidewalks.<\/span><\/p>\n

District 4 Coun. Vicki Amirault said that at the Nov. 13 police advisory board meeting, Queens District RCMP Const. Andrew Winsor reviewed the Motor Vehicle Act provisions around e-scooters.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe discussed the uses of these devices on all roads, but the most challenged road was Bristol Avenue,” Amirault told her fellow councillors at Tuesday’s regular council meeting. <\/span><\/p>\n

“\u2029The board discussed sidewalk versus roadway use for the e-scooters. Due to the narrow lanes and heavy traffic in this area, it was suggested sidewalk use for limited areas, such as these supported by signage, with expectations for reductions in speed.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Residents told councillors at their recent town hall sessions that it\u2019s become too dangerous as a pedestrian in some areas, with the rise in popularity of the devices.<\/span><\/p>\n

They reported people riding e-scooters and e-bikes at high speeds and not paying attention to what they were doing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Councillors asked staff to develop \u201cclear, enforceable provisions regulating e-bikes and e-scooters as recommended by the police advisory board\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

They also want staff to come up with amendments to a bylaw that restricts skateboard use in downtown Liverpool.<\/span><\/p>\n

Deputy Mayor Maddie Charlton said the 1998 bylaw prohibiting skateboards at Fort Point, on Main Street, park of Market Street and near the Visitor Information Centre is too restrictive.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe police advisory board wanted to remedy that since we have a lovely skate park and we’re promoting activity and further engagement with our youth. So that doesn’t jibe with the council of the day.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She said Winsor told councillors that they can\u2019t do anything about reckless e-scooter and e-bike use without a municipal bylaw.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhere the municipality doesn’t have bylaws with e-bikes and e-scooters, he can’t do any ticketing. So once we have a bylaw in place that covers that, if someone is going excessive speed on Bristol, he actually would be able to ticket them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Motor Vehicle Act does extensively regulate the use of e-scooters. It explicitly says they should be treated like bicycles, and are not allowed on sidewalks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Users of bicycles, e-scooters, skateboards and other similar devices are also supposed to wear helmets.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhere a roadway has a bicycle lane for bicycles travelling in the same direction that a cyclist is travelling, the operator of an electric kick-scooter shall ride in the bicycle lane unless it is impracticable to do so,” the act says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAn operator of an electric kick-scooter who is not riding in a bicycle lane shall ride as far to the right side of the roadway as practicable or on the right-hand shoulder of the roadway.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Nova Scotia government recently passed a new Traffic Safety Act, which is due to replace the Motor Vehicle Act. It has not been proclaimed yet, so the current Motor Vehicle Act stands.<\/span><\/p>\n

Under the new act, however, much of the responsibility for regulating the use of bicycles, e-scooters and e-bikes would fall to municipalities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mayor Scott Christian said he\u2019s unsure why provisions of the Motor Vehicle Act aren\u2019t being enforced. But he said he hopes the staff report will help clarify who\u2019s responsible.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>It seems to me that some other municipalities will have already tackled this one. So I’ll be interested to see what approaches to regulating the appropriate and safe use of those devices within a town context where there is sidewalk infrastructure in place.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Councillors also asked staff to investigate traffic calming measures in the town of Liverpool to respond to residents\u2019 concerns about speeding by motor vehicles.<\/span><\/p>\n

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Listen to the audio version of this story below<\/strong><\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/escootersonsidewalksnov2725.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Region of Queens wants to figure out how to regulate e-scooters and e-bikes in the municipality. And that could include allowing them on sidewalks. District 4 Coun. Vicki Amirault said that at the Nov. 13 police advisory board meeting, Queens District RCMP Const. Andrew Winsor reviewed the Motor Vehicle Act provisions around e-scooters. \u201cWe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[3612,1261,3610,3611,95,3505,1656,94,24,226,1756,3614,592,2170,3613,96],"class_list":["post-9492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-bicycles","tag-bristol-avenue","tag-e-bikes","tag-e-scooters","tag-maddie-charlton","tag-motor-vehicle-act","tag-pedestrian","tag-rcmp","tag-region-of-queens","tag-scott-christian","tag-sidewalks","tag-skateboards","tag-traffic","tag-traffic-safety","tag-traffic-safety-act","tag-vicki-amirault"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9492"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9495,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9492\/revisions\/9495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}