E-scooters arrive in Regina as Saskatoon hits riding milestone

Regina Mayor Sandra Masters launched the city's rentable e-scooter service Wednesday in Victoria Park, with people riding and testing the scooters soon after.

The city chose Neuron and Bird — the same companies offering e-scooters in Saskatoon — as its official vendors.

According to Masters, the city will release hundreds of e-scooters gradually as the program advances.

"The City of Regina takes recreation pretty seriously," said Masters. "We did decide, quite unanimously, that it was a convenient, sustainable and fun way with e-scooters to get around our city."

Masters said the rental options are in addition to Regina city council already approving the use of private e-scooters in April. 

The rentable devices are allowed on roads with speed limits of 50 kilometres or less, and on multi-use pathways. However, they are not allowed on sidewalks and are limited 24km/h on roadways and 15km/hr on pathways.

Riders are required to be at least 16 years old and helmets are mandatory.

The Neuron e-scooter costs $1.15 to unlock and $0.39 cents per minute of operation.

Masters said Regina administration looked to Saskatoon for best practices with the e-scooters, since a similar program rolled out there about one month ago. 

Saskatoon experienced issues with inaccurate geo-fencing, and scooters incorrectly parked or obstructing pathways.

"I think Bird and Neuron are both really aware of the geo-fencing issue, and so there is testing that's been done," said Masters. "We know it's rolling out new and we expect some issues."

Milestone in Saskatoon

Since Saskatoon launched its e-scooter pilot program in May, Neuron scooters have racked up a total of 100,000 kilometres. 

Despite the success of the program, there are still issues surrounding geo-fencing and parking. 

"We take our rider feedback and then we adjust the riding areas accordingly," said Isaac Ransom, the head of Neuron corporate affairs. "Sometimes it can be a little frustrating if you think you should be able to take the device on the sidewalk, when in fact you actually can't."

Ransom said the key to fixing parking problems is education, which the company does through pop-up "SafeScoot" tents, where it informs and talks with people who are curious about the scooters.

Neuron recently updated its fleet's geo-fencing, so a scooter should automatically detect if it is being used on a sidewalk and slow down.

To prevent riders from breaking the rules with things like parking, the company has a "two strike, you're out" rule, which can result in a ban.

"We start with education where they get a prompt from our customer service, and then if further action is required in the future, we'll take that."

So far, several people have been banned, according to Ransom, but the majority of riders are abiding by the rules.

"Not only does the scooter tell you not to do certain things, but in app there's a number of prompts as well, which speak to how to appropriately park," said Ransom.

Neuron has a sanitization schedule for their helmets and e-scooters. Ransom said they use a hospital grade disinfectant and also regularly change out the helmets.