TTC board delays vote to ban e-bikes, e-scooters on transit
Ban was meant to address safety concerns over lithium-ion batteries and their risk of catching fire
The TTC board decided to hold off on a vote to potentially ban e-bikes and e-scooters across Toronto's transit system during the winter season, after a host of issues in the proposed ban popped up at a meeting on Tuesday.
The vote will be held off until the board's next meeting to give the TTC's racial equity office time to determine the impact any potential policy could have on marginalized groups, a decision made after board members acknowledged there were no consultations with people who could be affected.
In the meeting, TTC Chair Jamaal Myers moved the motion to complete an equity impact review, raising concerns over how banning the vehicles on TTC transit could affect groups like people with disabilities, seniors, and food couriers.
"We haven't given them any time to come up with a Plan B," he told the board.
Many issues raised
In the meeting, the board learned about many other issues that could complicate the ban, like how it may conflict with current Metrolinx policies as well as a lack of clarity about how the city could enforce it.
After lengthy discussions over the measure ahead of the planned vote, Coun. Stephen Holyday said he wished they had these conversations around the planned ban earlier in the year, as it was supposed to be enacted in less than three weeks, lasting from Nov. 15 to April 15 annually.
"Perhaps there could have been more room for ideas and consultation and discussion leading into [this meeting] and it seems awfully fast that it has to be implemented," he said.
The wintertime ban was meant to address concerns over the likelihood of lithium-ion batteries found on e-bikes and e-scooters to catch on fire in poor weather conditions.
Toronto Fire Services say the number of fires originating from e-bikes and e-scooter increased by 90 per cent between 2022 and 2023, as the number of them grew from 29 to 55.
In the TTC board meeting, interim fire Chief Larry Cocco said there were 59 fires so far this year, with only one of them happening on a TTC train.
Concerns over inconsistency with Metrolinx policies
The board's indecisiveness over the wintertime ban started with concerns over its inconsistency with policies that already exist at Metrolinx.
Unlike Toronto's plan to ban all e-bikes and e-scooters from TTC trasit over the winter, Metrolinx restricted which e-bikes can be on its trains earlier this year, only allowing ones that are "UL" or "CE" certified.
Michael Longfield, executive director of Cycle Toronto, spoke at the meeting and raised concerns with how the TTC's ban could conflict with Metrolinx's policy, especially for people who take their e-bikes and e-scooters on the GO Train and later want to use the TTC.
"Just imagine that type of user confusion about, why is it allowed on the GO train but not allowed here?" Longfield said.
Myers agreed with what a conflicting policy might mean.
"If we're gong to propose a ban that's inconsistent with Metrolinx it's not going to work and we're just setting ourselves up for failure," he said.
Lack of clarity on what seasonal ban could achieve
The move to ban the devices on the TTC came after an e-bike caught fire on a subway train at Sheppard-Yonge subway station last December, causing a man to suffer non-life-threatening injuries.
The investigation that followed found the fire happened because the lithium-ion battery that powered the e-bike went through "thermal runaway," which happens when too much heat builds up inside the battery.
The TTC's report made in the aftermath said the e-bike's manufacturer advised they weren't intended to be used in adverse weather conditions.
WATCH | E-bike battery fire on TTC last year:
But in the TTC's board meeting, doubts were raised over how effective it would be to only ban them in the wintertime, with Cocco saying the batteries could fail for a range of reasons besides cold weather, like people not following manufacturer instructions or modifying their batteries themselves.
"There's no predictability in when they fail," he said, acknowledging they don't know all batteries are safe in the summer if they don't know what happened to them over the winter months.
Coun. Dianne Saxe later said that with only one fire from an e-bike taking place on the TTC this year with an uncertified bike that would have been banned by Metrolinx, the TTC's measure to ban them all is "an over the top response to a problem we haven't had yet".
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