Victoria rolls ahead with plans to allow more transportation options on bike lanes

The outcomes of three upcoming votes will go a long way in determining how busy Victoria’s bike lanes will become—and could set in motion the idea of changing or even widening those lanes.

Tomorrow, Victoria’s city council is expected to vote on a staff proposal to join a provincewide pilot project to determine the benefits and effects of allowing e-scooters in bike lanes.

In a not entirely unrelated issue, the CRD will vote next Thursday on whether it should request the province to consider allowing mobility scooters and micro-mobility devices on bike lanes, something the city also will debate March 14.

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“It’s a human rights issue frankly, for folks in mobility scooters who have accessibility challenges,” Coun. Jeremy Caradonna tells Capital Daily, on legally allowing the electric devices onto bike lanes.

“They should be able to access our all-ages and abilities cycling facilities,” he said. “There's really no reason why they should not be able to.”

The third vote would take place the following day, when Caradonna and fellow Victoria Coun. Dave Thompson will present the council with a motion to allow mobility and micro-mobility devices on the city’s bike lanes.

With the advent of e-scooters and other mobility devices being added to the mix of cyclists, e-skateboarders, rollerbladers and more, Caradonna calls the current situation on our streets, sidewalks and bike lanes something out of the “Wild West” with no standards, signage or even ticketing.

“And that does create the potential for dangers and for accidents and collisions. So you know, at the end of the day, we want safety.”

This may mean some bike lane changes down the road

Caradonna tells Capital Daily that at some point, the city is going to have to revise current design standards to take into account the new users.

“So ideally, what will happen is that the province will complete the regulations and then we will take that as guidance from the province and then we'll update our roads and bylaws, to align with whatever the province allows us to do.”

The provincial government recognizes a need to address the burgeoning array of new motor vehicles and their place on BC’s roadways. Last spring, the legislature gave third reading to Bill 23, the Motor Vehicle Amendment Act, which proposes amendments to create a safer environment for vulnerable road users, such as cyclists and pedestrians, and supports the shift to increased active transportation.

“E-scooters are part of an ongoing shift toward electric personal mobility that’s reducing emissions by giving people new clean and affordable options to get around,” Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Rob Fleming said in a December release. “We’re making it easier for local governments to test e-scooters on their own roads, so we can ensure future regulations represent the needs of people across the province.”

Caradonna says most of these new micro-mobility devices aren’t fully defined in the Motor Vehicle Act.

“They don't really exist as they're not a car, they're not a bike. Nobody knows what to do with them. So there is significant confusion right now—and we're trying to bring some clarity to the situation.”

He points out the province hasn’t created the regulations that go along with that legislation and Thompson thinks that’s because the province wants to move slowly but surely.

“It seems like the provincial government is signaling that this is the way that they want to go, but they want to make sure it's done safely.”

BC government all for mobility devices on our roadways

BC’s Ministry of Transportation was unable to respond to Capital Daily in time for this report, but in a statement to CHEK News, the ministry said “people using mobility devices have the same rights and duties as pedestrians, which includes sidewalks, when available.”

The pilot project safety review allowing the electric kick scooters on cycling paths would begin April 5 and run for four years. If the council approves, Victoria would become the first municipality on the Island to take part in the study, and it could lead to more congested bike lanes.

From a cyclist's point of view

Cycling advocate John Luton welcomes alternative forms of transportation being added to the mix.

“In our diverse cultural mobility, people need to get around and having the e-scooters and mobility scooters out there are good ways to get people out of their cars where they can,” the self-employed transportation consultant tells Capital Daily.

“And I think bike lanes or cycle tracks are probably the right place.”

The right place, he says, but with a caveat: it may mean somewhere down the road, the city may have to widen its current bike lanes.

“The issue becomes not just with mobility, scooters, and e-scooters, but also the proliferation of e-bikes is the cycle tracks (AAA protected lanes) that are out there now, didn't anticipate the explosion in electric mobility—and in a lot of cases, they're too narrow for the traffic that's there now.”

Luton says ideally, the lanes could be uni-directional and if possible with another lane in the opposite direction.

The other main issue, Luton says, is speed. Some of the new e-bikes, such as e-kick scooters—the ones the city may be allowing its residents to test in the province’s pilot project—can move at a high rate of speed, making bike lanes dangerous for slower-flowing traffic and pedestrians who may be crossing at intersections or driveways.

Bit of a speed difference, which could be problematic

The scooters—similar to those around in the 1980s are now motorized and move at least three times the 8-9km/h speed mobility scooters can reach—like all other vehicles within the bike lanes are legally allowed to travel no faster than the posted vehicle speed limit, which brings into question whether bike lane speedsters should be ticketed.

Luton, a self-employed transportation consultant says bike-lane building isn’t easy in Victoria because unlike most cities whose streets are based on a grid system, Victoria’s roads are based on historic roots that in many cases predate motor vehicles “so they wander and weave all over the place.”

He says for that reason, many cyclists switch between bike lanes and car lanes, depending on where they are going. But he doesn’t see how police can or should have to patrol whether cyclists veer off bike lanes.

Luton thinks the concrete wheel stop curbs used in Saanich are useful and similar temporary dividers could be dropped onto Victoria's existing painted bike lanes because they’re quick and cheap.

“Rather than pouring concrete, these barriers create a separation that is flexible.”