If riding a scooter around town isn’t your style, pedal power is on the way.
Neuron and Bird, two electronic scooter companies operating in Alberta, are ready to launch dockless e-bike fleets in Calgary. You can see them on the streets of the city from June 1.
When the city of Calgary selected two companies to rent electronic scooters, the option to also launch electronic bicycles was on the table, with each company allowed to test a fleet of 100 bicycles.
“Shared e-scooters and e-bikes are a great way to reduce carbon emissions, alleviate congestion and remove some car travel from our roads,” said city spokeswoman Amanda Bradley. “They provide safe, sustainable and cheap last-mile transportation to Calgary, and we look forward to seeing shared electronic bikes in the city.”
Daniel Rodrigo, manager of Neuron Alberta, said the company was in no hurry to launch e-bikes, wanting to fix any problems with scooters before introducing another mode of transport.
“It was fantastic,” Rodrigo said. “This is definitely one of, if not our best markets in Canada. Calgary has been super receptive to the use of electronic scooters.”
The Bird electric bike is hand-built and has pedal assistance once you pick up speed. (Submitted by Bird)
Both companies believe that choosing an electronic scooter or bicycle will help different types of passengers. In Bird, JJ Bitove, chief financial officer, said they see their electronic bike as an option for those who want to get a little further than the average scooter rider.
“There’s no point in taking a scooter to ride five kilometers somewhere where a bike can get you there much faster and easier.”
The rules are a little different from scooters
E-bikes must follow the same rules as regular travel bikes under the Alberta Traffic Safety Act, as well as Calgary cycling regulations. The main difference: scooters are allowed on the sidewalks, bicycles are not.
Other rules include:
- Riders must be over 19 years old.
- Children or pets are not allowed in the e-bike baskets.
- Drunk driving is not allowed.
Booking an electronic bike is done through the same Neuron or Bird app and costs the same as a scooter ride.
Electronic bicycles without a dock are not new to the city
Lime launched a system for electric bicycles without a dock in 2018, starting with a fleet of just under 400 bicycles.
Then in 2020, Lime abruptly pulled electronic bikes off the streets of Calgary in February, saying the model was unsustainable. The company said that consumers mostly choose scooters.
The fleet consists of 500 electric bicycles with pedals. According to city data, there are 40,000 users who have made 168,000 trips and traveled 210,000 kilometers in one year. By comparison, in three months in 2019, Bird and Lime scooters registered 750,000 trips.
But Bitove is confident the market has changed since Lime left Calgary. Especially after people’s habits changed during the pandemic.
“You have already built on the success of an e-scooter pilot and really turned it into a long-term solution,” he said.
“So when you manage to come in and impose a new bike program on top of that, I think it’s a lot better.”
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