The Saint-Laurent borough council has adopted an amendment to a road safety bylaw that will add new rules to the use of motorized personal mobility devices, including e-scooters, e-unicycles and other similar devices. The amendment to Bylaw no. 878 now prohibits the use of motorized personal mobility devices in public spaces outside the borough’s road network, including parks. Saint-Laurent borough mayor Alan DeSousa said the measure aims to establish consistent rules for users and reduce the risk of injuries. “We are seeing these scooters used all over the place, often with no helmets, double ridership, motors that are being adjusted to make them go faster,” said DeSousa. “Many of our residents have talked about safety concerns of having these electric scooters used in our parks and public spaces. So our council has chosen to create a bylaw that would at least prevent these scooters, which are not regulated, from being used in places where they might cause injury to people walking in our parks.” The bylaw provides for certain exceptions, including for motorized mobility aids, moving a vehicle on foot when its engine is not running as well as for emergency responses and activities authorized by the borough. “Our hope is that this is a warning sign, given to mothers and fathers who are contemplating this type of purchase for their kids, that we need to have a certain degree of responsibility involved,” said DeSousa. The Quebec government launched a three-year pilot project on motorized personal mobility devices in July 2023. The project was extended until July 2028. It aims to test the use of such devices under certain conditions and on designated public roadways, including bike lanes, and assess how they can be integrated into road traffic. Under the project, motorized personal mobility devices are permitted on public roads with maximum speed limits of 50 km/h or less, as well as on bike lanes located along those roads. Users must follow several rules, including be at least 14 years old, wear a helmet, travelling at a maximum speed of 25 km/h, following the same traffic rules as cyclists and riding in the direction of traffic. However, the Montreal Children’s Hospital (MCH) trauma centre called on the government to introduce stricter rules for e-scooter use, reporting that related injuries were becoming more frequent. Similar calls for stricter regulations have come from children’s hospitals across Canada. DeSoura said the borough’s move is also a call to the newly elected government to enact a legislation governing the use of e-scooters in public places to ensure consistency across Quebec. “It is not in anyone’s interest that there be multiple bylaws, each one being different, and so, I think one way to harmonize it would be for the provincial government to act,” DeSousa said. “But in the meantime, we can protect our community from dangers, accidents where these e-scooters are currently being used with very little guidance.”
