E-Scooters are a nice alternative to the Better Way during Pandemic times. STUART HIMMEL Staff Writer
The Birds, Limes and Rolls made
tally and numerically. The number of
students to commuters travelling the
their way to Ottawa in the middle of
rides taken on e-scooters in Ottawa
last mile from the transit station to
July. What, you may ask are Birds,
exceeded expectations while the
their office towers.
Limes and Rolls?
complaints were few and far between. City Councilor Tim Tierney, who
The concept is simple. Hop on any
They are names of three E-Scooter
chairs the municipal transportation
scooter where it is found, set it in
companies engaged in head to head
committee, claimed “there has been a
motion with a smartphone app, then
survival contest to determine which if
lot of thought put into this and it’s
leave it at your destination for the
any, will be invited back next year.
probably been one of the more
next rider’s use. The average price of
The city’s downtown was filled with
successful pilot scooter projects
a trip is $2-$5.00.
electronic scooters carting people
across the country if not throughout
from the shops of the ByWard Market
North America”.
to the restaurants of Elgin St to the
When scooters reach their boundaries or areas deemed off limits
grounds of Parliament Hill. It was the
Bird and Lime were each permitted to
(preset by city and company), they
start of a three and a half month test
deploy 260 of the rechargeable
automatically shut off. At the end of
of the viability and safety of the
scooters while Roll was allowed 80.
each day, they are picked up,
trendy devices.
Over the course of the project, more
recharged and set back in the most
than 200,000 rides were taken by
accessible locations.
Although the final assessment has
more than 50,000 individual riders.
yet to completed, the project appears
The vehicles are aimed at several
Stewart Lyons, the CEO of Bird
to have been a success both anecdo-
demographics from tourists to
Canada stated that “We want people
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MBE BUSINESS MAGAZINE JANUARY 2021
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