Bird electric scooter program expanding across a big swath of Hamilton Mountain

No longer is whipping along a city pathway with the wind in your hair just for lower-city residents – Hamilton's electric scooter program, run by Bird Canada, has expanded to the Hamilton Mountain. 

Bird launched the expansion May 9, according to a City of Hamilton report that said 300 scooters in total will be added to stations across Wards 6, 7, 8 and 14, south of the Niagara Escarpment and north of the Lincoln Alexander Parkway. 

"After two years of the program operations and data analysis, both the City and Bird Canada staff identified additional service areas for expansion," says the report, submitted by Steve Molloy, the city's acting director of transportation planning and parking. "City staff collaborated with councillors from the affected wards to create service area boundaries for the expansion."

Bird Canada general manager Pat Graham says the company heard significant feedback from users who live on the Mountain and want to use the scooter to commute to work downtown. 

"It was a natural expansion of our current downtown operating zone," he told CBC Hamilton on Wednesday, adding that it will take until sometime in June to get the full complement of 300 new scooters stationed. "It will start small and gradually increase over time."

The new scooters on the Mountain are in addition to the 600 scooters available in the lower city, from Ward 4 in the east to Dundas in the west.

Bird scooters, which are reserved and paid for through an app, have been available in parts of the lower city since 2023. The company says riders must be over 16 years old to use the Hamilton system, and offers the following "tips" for scooter safety:

• Watch for pedestrians.
• Use caution and follow local safety and traffic laws.
• Travel in bike lanes or roads unless otherwise directed.
• Ride one person per Bird at a time.

However, scooters with multiple riders are a common sight in Hamilton's downtown, and they can occasionally be seen on sidewalks.

He also said the devices have geo-fencing technology that prevents them from going on sidewalks, but this is based on GPS and is "imperfect." The technology is also used to prevent them from using certain roads, a feature he says will be enacted in an enhanced way on the Hamilton Mountain.

"There will be no-ride zones on certain streets as well as arterial roads," he said, adding that all roads with a speed limit about 50 kilometres per hour, such as the Sherman Access, will be off limits. 

Graham estimated that a one-off trip from Mohawk College to downtown would cost around $12, but that cost is cut significantly if users purchase a ride pass, which covers travel over a designated time period. For instance, he said a seven-day pass is $29.99, and allows 120 minutes of riding, a 43 per cent discount from the base fare. "If you are taking two rides a day for a week, it's a much friendlier option."