Saanich will be joining Victoria in allowing electric scooters by participating in the province’s reworked e-scooter pilot program beginning on April 5.
The scooters will be bound by most of the same rules as bicycles in the district, meaning they will be allowed in bike lanes and on roads, but prohibited on sidewalks and some roads with speed limits over 50 kilometres per hour. Riders also must wear a helmet. Unlike bikes, scooter users will have to be 16 years or older.
Up until April 5, electric scooters will remain illegal on Saanich roads and bike lanes.
Both Victoria and Saanich had declined to join the initial pilot program for e-scooters in 2021, with Saanich staff reasoning that there was little regional coordination on the matter and that because of how the program was designed, it would be difficult to implement.
Since then, Saanich has decided to embrace an active transportation plan and electric scooters align with this agenda by providing a sustainable transportation choice by shortening trips around neighbourhoods and providing an affordable choice to connect to other forms of transit.
The province has also sought to simplify the requirements for municipalities joining onto the program by removing a bylaw change requirement; however, Saanich staff have decided the best course of action is to still alter traffic bylaws to ensure alignment with the provincial framework.
This time around, On Monday (March 11) Saanich council unanimously approved district staff’s recommendation to join the project without even debating the topic.
The pilot project will run until April 2028.
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