Staff to bring a report and draft bylaw/bylaw amendment to the Traffic Bylaw to the July 5th…

57:20the motion on the floor for discussion. Thank you. Through you chair, I would like to move a motion.

57:29If you could wait for the motion until after the delegation, but if you could just speak to it now

57:33to create some kind of a context for the delegation. Thank you for that clarification chair. I intend

57:40to to move a motion that direct staff to come forward with a bylaw that would

57:48allow the use of private e scooters in the city of wealth. At present, there is a provincial

57:54pilot and unless municipalities have approved bylaws allowing the use of e scooters within

58:02municipalities, they are forbidden. So with the increase of community members using e scooters,

58:09I think it would be beneficial for the city of wealth to get ahead of this,

58:14make them permissible and set clear rules about where and where they're not supposed to be used,

58:20speed limits, so we can regulate and monitor and then as per the terms of the provincial pilot,

58:28the only other responsibility for the city would be to request that police services

58:34provide information to the province relating to to e scooters between now and the end of the pilot

58:42at the end of 2024. Okay, thank you. So we're going to go to our delegation first.

58:50If Adrian Salvatore could come forward. Thank you. And he's speaking from the

58:58wealth coalition for active transportation. Good afternoon esteemed members of council,

59:10respected staff and my fellow members of the public. My name is Adrian Salvatore and I'm here

59:14today in my capacity as the vice chair for the wealth coalition for active transportation.

59:20We are strongly in support of this motion to permit e scooters in our community.

59:27As our organization's mission is to increase the quality, quantity and safety of active

59:32transportation infrastructure in wealth. We consider e scooters a valuable part of the

59:39active transportation family and we welcome them. While engaging with our members and the community,

59:45we heard of many interesting and novel uses for e scooters. The high degree of portability

59:51means that e scooter owners are more comfortable taking their scooters to work where they can

59:56store them indoors. Bike theft is a great concern for many cyclists and e scooters

1:00:03completely get rid of this issue. Others mentioned the portability of e scooters as it allows them to

1:00:10use it as sort of a last mile solution where they can put it in the trunk, take the car to the

1:00:15car park and then use the e scooter to get to their destination. The idea is further supported by

1:00:23Ottawa's 2022 electric kick scooter pilot report where nearly a third of respondents indicated

1:00:29that the most common reason for using a shared e scooter was to connect to another mode.

1:00:36We have no doubts that these and other use cases will increase the utilization

1:00:40of our active transportation infrastructure and support the city's mode shift goals.

1:00:46With it bringing the environmental benefits such as reduced pollution, alleviating traffic

1:00:51and creating less waste. Permitting e scooters will also help us work towards our equity goals

1:00:57in the transportation master plan. It provides an option for individuals who may not have access

1:01:02to a personal vehicle and whose trip may not well be served by transit. The cost of ownership of

1:01:08e scooters is significantly lower than private vehicles and thus may provide an option to those

1:01:13with financial barriers. Ultimately we see e scooters as another transportation alternative

1:01:19that will provide choice to our neighbors and allow them to meet their transportation needs

1:01:23in more economical and sustainable ways. They're also quite fun to ride. That point should not

1:01:29be overlooked. The same 2022 e scooter pilot report from Ottawa when e scooter users were

1:01:36surveyed on why they chose an e scooter over another mode. The most common response is included

1:01:41that e scooters were fun. We should aim to make getting around our lovely city enjoyable.

1:01:47Though we recognize there are some concerns with these scooters namely sidewalk clutter

1:01:52with personal use we don't perceive this to be a concern. Moreover in conversations we've had

1:01:57with cyclists the vast majority of our current e scooter users on the road are courteous and

1:02:02respectful. To summarize we strongly support this motion and hope that council seriously

1:02:07considers moving towards permitting personal e scooters here in Guelph. Thank you Councillor

1:02:12Guller for bringing the motion forward and thank you all for your time. Thank you. Are there any

1:02:16questions of the delegation first to a councillor Allt and then councillor work? Thank you very much

1:02:23Mr Salvatore. I'm going to treat you like an expert because I think you are. Are there areas

1:02:29where you believe e scooters should not be used and you made some reference to sidewalks? I'm

1:02:35very concerned about bikes, e scooters, anything like that on a sidewalk because I've heard from

1:02:39too many people that they are fearful of them. I was wondering if you could comment on that as

1:02:43somewhat of an expert. For sure thank you for the question. Now my understanding actually of the

1:02:48provincial pilot is in Ontario that the e scooters are not permitted on sidewalks and of course

1:02:53in close proximity with pedestrians that I see as potentially an issue. Most of our e scooter

1:02:59riders who are currently on the road right now are using the cycling infrastructure where they're

1:03:03at comparable speeds to bicycles I believe limited to 28k an hour so I don't perceive any issue with

1:03:09that. Just to follow up thank you for that by the way. The other concern is I know I'd be tempted

1:03:16to do this. What about trails in parks and similar? On that I believe it best to defer to

1:03:26whatever staff investigation turns up. Okay we'll do that thank you. Thank you councillor work.

1:03:33Thank you chair downer. I have a similar question so through you to Mr Salvatore.

1:03:38So we're moving towards multi-use paths or cycle paths so I was wondering what the

1:03:44the preventions are in terms of conflict with pedestrians or younger cyclists or people with

1:03:52you know less mobility especially as we move towards our AAA facilities. I'm just wondering

1:03:56if you have any research that points to how that works on a multi-use path. For sure thank you for

1:04:03the question. I believe in most cases actually e scooter riders are recommended to keep their

1:04:09speed when in proximity of pedestrians to a pedestrian speed and I think something like

1:04:14that would be a good solution in multi-use paths here. A lot of it comes down to education and I

1:04:19believe the motion as it will be put forward addresses some of that with the Guelph police

1:04:23services as well. Perfect thanks. Are there any more questions? Okay thank you Mr Salvatore.

1:04:30Thank you. Okay councillor Goller do you want to put your motion on the floor with a seconder?

1:04:35If I may a chair downer I would like to move my motion. I believe that councillor

1:04:41Ault will be happy to second and if I could have staff to put it up there's three parts to this.

1:04:48First part is that staff be directed to bring a report and draft by law or by law amendment to

1:04:55the traffic by law to the July 5th 2023 committee of the whole meeting to permit the operation of

1:05:00personal use e scooters meeting all provincially required conditions and regulations and including

1:05:06any other recommended conditions. With this one the word is a little bit it's open because we can

1:05:12either move a by-law that talks about this or we can modify the city's transportation by-law so

1:05:17we'll traffic by-law so we'll let staff choose which is the best approach. The second part of

1:05:24this motion is that due to the provincial e scooter pilot and you know in January 1st 2025 and the

1:05:29opportunity to regulate e scooters in 2023 City Council acknowledges that the city will not undertake

1:05:36the normal public consultation. City Council encourages the public to provide feedback to

1:05:42council directly and to delegate to the July committee of the whole or City Council meetings

1:05:49and the third item that City Council requests that wealth police services provide input into

1:05:55the July staff report related to enforcement of the proposed by-law impacts for provincial

1:06:00reporting requirements concerning crash data and recommendations regarding an e scooter public

1:06:06education campaign. Thank you are there any questions? I'll just start at Councillor Bousatel and then I saw

1:06:16Councillor Caron. Okay thank you and through the chair I'm a little bit confused around

1:06:24normal public consultation if I can have a clarification on what that really means is there

1:06:30a requirement legislative anything around the consultation in this process and I guess my

1:06:37concern is July is summertime kids are winding down people aren't paying attention just around what

1:06:42exactly is what what does that mean what is not happening. So through the chair to Councillor Bousatel

1:06:48we will not be doing any public consultation on this in order to deliver this back to you by July

1:06:53so normally for a new by-law like this there would be we would either consider sometimes

1:06:58working groups if there's interested stakeholders we would do some form of public consultation

1:07:04in line with our community engagement framework and we will not be doing any

1:07:10surveying public consultation we won't be doing a have your say we won't be looking for public

1:07:15feedback on this simply because we don't have time. Assuming this is ratified at the end of May

1:07:2131st our agenda is due roughly June 15th for in order for you to consider it in July so and

1:07:28because we can't take action until the end of the month when this is ratified we only really

1:07:33have two weeks to produce the by-law and get it back on the agenda for July so that simply means

1:07:39that as Councillor Gowley's motion indicates the sole time for the public to engage back and give

1:07:43you through the city or yourself's feedback would be at that July committee the whole meeting.

1:07:48Thank you and through the chair I guess to the mover and seconder my question is is what's the

1:07:54rush in this I as someone who's deeply committed to public engagement and consultation I don't

1:08:00understand that it's it feels like you know Solomon's choice. Caps will go I would like to

1:08:07respond to that. Thank you and through chair downer to Councillor Busuttil very fair question

1:08:13my concern here is that to do adequate public engagement on this it would be a process that

1:08:20may take six months to two a year and in this case as the provincial pilot will only last until

1:08:28the end of next year we would be sending staff to do a substantial amount of work

1:08:35for what would be in place for a relatively short period of time and then starting in 2025

1:08:42there will be province-wide guidelines that will trump what what we come up with here at the city.

1:08:49My other reason for this is that they are being used I'm receiving now complaints from constituents

1:08:55who say that someone in an e-scooter flew past them on the multi-use path and I think that we have

1:09:02the option to either speak to police services and request enforcement that these be not be allowed

1:09:09in the city but then that goes counter to our intentions to increase forms of active transportation

1:09:16so in this way we can look at what the other municipalities that already have a violent

1:09:22place what they have done look at those best practices that they have selected and put something

1:09:29in place on a temporary basis. My my intention here is that we don't lose this year to have a

1:09:37awareness campaign of you know you should be going at this speed don't use them here use them here

1:09:43and we would be able to curb unwanted use sooner this way. Thank you for the explanation.

1:09:55Thank you and I've got Councillor Caron next. Actually my question was similar to Councillor

1:10:02Bousatil it was about the consultation I actually have a very minor friendly amendment and that

1:10:07is to change the word consultation to pre-consultation and the reason for that is we're doing consultation

1:10:13on the potential to bring forward a bylaw. I don't want that to preclude us from doing consultation

1:10:21on the effectiveness of the bylaw after the fact because we may want to feed into the the pilot

1:10:28project the provincial pilot project we we want to assess the success of the bylaw after we've

1:10:35had a period to test it so if you could I would amend the word to pre-consultation if I have a

1:10:42seconder and that's just to give clarity so that we we don't end up in a situation where

1:10:47we're letting the public know that you won't have an opportunity to comment at a later date.

1:10:56Under item two we'll not undertake the normal public pre-consultation and that is that is

1:11:03just related to the development of the bylaw only and I think I believe DCAO Clackbush has

1:11:10some comments. Thank you through the chair allowing me to jump in so I just wanted to also

1:11:16clarify the provincial pilot is a five-year pilot and we're three almost three and a half years in

1:11:21so the amount of feedback that we are going to be able to provide will be very limited. We opted

1:11:26not to to participate in the pilot as and I will speak certainly Ms. Holmes can comment further.

1:11:33We absolutely support and agree that e-scooters long term as part of our active transportation

1:11:38goal staff do not disagree with that but we made the decision not to bring it forward to participate

1:11:43in the pilot simply due to staff resources and our ability to to do the pilot and to participate in

1:11:48it and certainly even what we'll bring back in July will probably be a fairly narrow bylaw

1:11:54permitting this simply because we don't have the staff resources to to allocate and we only

1:12:00will have in essence a year and a half left in the provincial pilot and so this will be a very

1:12:05minimal it will be a opt-in with limited ability of staff to really provide much feedback to the

1:12:13province both because of our resourcing capabilities and because we really are at the end of the

1:12:18provincial pilot and we fully expect that they will likely either legalize it as of January 1st

1:12:232025 or not and that that will be decided for us one way the other January 2025 so I just didn't

1:12:29want to leave council with the impression that we have the capacity to do a specific amount of

1:12:33community engagement we would simply be bringing this bylaw in subject to your approval of course

1:12:39in July and then letting it ride out for those remaining 18 months of the provincial pilot.

1:12:44Okay thank you so we have the amendment on the floor with a seconded by Councillor Allt.

1:12:49Are there any questions on the amendment? Is there any comments on the amendment?

1:12:57Seeing none is there any one I'll call the vote is anybody opposed to the amendment?

1:13:03I see none okay so we can go back to the main motion and I have Councillor Claasen,

1:13:10Ault and Kate next okay thank you through you chair downer to staff I just had a question

1:13:17because I know that you worked with Councillor Goller on this motion was there any consideration

1:13:22for e-skateboards just because this is something that I've seen and I know that this is very

1:13:27specific to the scooters but I'm wondering if there's no I'm seeing you shake your head.

1:13:33No through the chair this was simply in response to Councillor Goller's request about e-scooters

1:13:39I would hope and suggest that when the province looks at this broader that they will give us

1:13:43clear direction on all e-modes of transportation because I think you know e-bikes that are motorized

1:13:51as opposed to pedal assist e-scooters e-skateboards there's a number of different e-things and I

1:13:58think we'll see more and more of them and so I'm certainly hopeful that the province will give us

1:14:02some clear direction because ultimately the province is in charge of the Highway Traffic

1:14:05Act and generally is responsible for telling us what vehicles are allowed on roads.

1:14:12Okay thank you.

1:14:15Would there be any benefit to adding e-skateboards into the motion for folks who already

1:14:22are potentially doing it? I would just say except it's not part of the pilot so it would be kind

1:14:33of contrary. Okay thank you. Yeah but something that we should consider again. Okay is that what

1:14:41you were going to say Councillor Goller? Okay then I would I have Councillor Alton.

1:14:47Thank you very much Chair Downer. I wanted to reinforce what Councillor Goller was stating

1:14:54and also to make a comment about the e-scooters because originally I was inclined to do that

1:14:58but then I realized when I was looking more closely that the e essentially covers anything and I'm

1:15:04ecstatic about that so I think that we can move forward recognizing that other than hoverboards

1:15:10we're going to catch everything on this but more importantly I think what we need to recognize is

1:15:15that that we're trying to be both future ready and at the same time we're catching up to the

1:15:19technology and the demand that is currently out there. We are receiving complaints. I've received

1:15:26a number of them and it's primarily from people that are very concerned for their safety as they

1:15:31get buzzed. I think we do need to be forward thinking and very safety-minded. Good on the province

1:15:38for looking at this. I think it's an inevitability because not only is it a mode of transportation

1:15:44that's environmentally friendly it's also a business and we have whether I like it or not and I like

1:15:51the business side of it. We have a provincial government that at this point is all business.

1:16:00Thank you Councillor Caden. Thank you through you Chair Downer. I agree with all of the points

1:16:07that have been put forward as to how e-scooters are like dark current and if not future in terms of

1:16:15transportation. I also agree that sidewalk accessibility is very important so I wanted to

1:16:21make sure that that is something that we're deeply considering when we make these policies

1:16:26but I also had a group of folks who are contacting me about children on e-scooters saying that the

1:16:32roads and the bike lanes are not safe enough for them to be on within a certain age group so I just

1:16:38kind of wanted to call that out and hope that we're keeping that into consideration because I don't

1:16:43want to trade harm for harm with thinking like people thinking they're five-year-olds on their

1:16:48little razor scooters have to go on the street when they could be on the sidewalk if there's no

1:16:54people on it. Okay thank you so Councillor Warp did you and Mayor Guthrie do you have comments

1:17:04questions? Thank you Chair Downer just a couple questions for staff. I'm just wondering what the

1:17:11staff capacity is to do this sort of within six weeks basically and also whether Gulf

1:17:17police have already indicated that they also are ready to collaborate over the next six weeks that's

1:17:22really fast turnaround for bylaw. So through the chair I'll start and then I'll pass it to Ms. Holmes

1:17:29so we're definitely concerned because it isn't actually six weeks because we can't act on this

1:17:33until after May 31st because we have to wait till council ratifies it on May 31st because we can't

1:17:37assume you're going to ratified at the end of the month so procedurally we actually can't take action

1:17:42until June the 1st so we understood and we worked with Councillor Goller and we committed to the

1:17:48two-week turnaround but I will be honest it's not going to be we're going to pull a bylaw together

1:17:54using what we've seen in other municipalities and other best practices to bring back to you.

1:17:59I did have an initial conversation with Chief Kobe to let him know that this was on the agenda

1:18:04but beyond that I don't want to speak for him I would imagine he will provide us content for

1:18:09the report that comes back to you also if they have concerns about their capacity because they're

1:18:13going to have to deal with some of the reporting on the crash data so there's the initial work on

1:18:18the two weeks to get you the report in time for the consideration in July but then I think there's

1:18:23also what our police services and our traffic team are going to need to then do to actually manage

1:18:28the bylaw so I'll turn to Ms Holmes to maybe speak more on that. Thank you so through the chair to

1:18:33Councillor Work so when we have a request like this that come in there are obviously staff resource

1:18:41concerns so we are going to have to pull staff off of things that they are working on now in order

1:18:46to put a rush and make this report a priority to make sure that we're trying to incorporate everything

1:18:52we can so that you have a full sum report to look at in July so we'll be working on that I also

1:19:00wanted to point out as well further to Ms Clackbush when she was talking about the resources to

1:19:06manage this afterwards just for warning that in the report again we do not have a staff resource to

1:19:11look or to manage a program like this as we go through the the province's pilot there are reporting

1:19:20requirements for which we have nobody right now in place to manage so until such time that we can

1:19:27get to you I presume through the multi-year budget where we're going to be asking for a resource that

1:19:33by the way has been presented in the last two years and hasn't been hasn't been approved we will have

1:19:39to pull staff off existing work in order to be able to manage this but we will flush that out as

1:19:45best we can in the report that comes to you in July. Okay thanks I appreciate your candor chair downer

1:19:51through you to staff I've got two more questions one is I think the legislation is uh teenagers

1:19:58for kids 16 and under have to wear a bike helmet right so I'm just thinking about the broader public

1:20:06health implications also so will the bylaw be parallel to that to to require riders under the

1:20:12age of 16 to wear helmets? So through the chair to councillor work yes that's one of the sort of

1:20:19preliminary and when we've done so our initial thinking and looking at other jurisdictions

1:20:23I will say and hopefully chief Kobe doesn't mind me sharing this one of his initial responses which

1:20:28is why working with councillor goller we added in the piece I think about the education campaign is

1:20:32chief Kobe's concern was right now it's not legal by making it legal they feel that there is a need

1:20:39to make sure that they are educating about risks for under children helmets etc because by making it

1:20:47legal in Guelph they want to make sure that we haven't sort of encouraged things that could be

1:20:52seen as unsafe so again that was just based on a really preliminary verbal conversation I had with

1:20:56chief Kobe but that's one of the reasons why I know they want to have the opportunity to provide

1:21:02feedback into the report so that they can speak to those safety concerns as well. Thanks and then

1:21:07just a comment I guess because I really like the intent and the motion especially if we harmonize

1:21:15it with surrounding municipalities because we've got the two way all they go so somebody at the

1:21:20Kitchener can zip over to their train station carry it onto the go and we fix that last mile

1:21:26problem so I quite like that I just want to make sure that it's done in a way that's safe right thanks.

1:21:33Okay thank you so I was going to Mayor Guthrie next but Councillor Gowley you have an answer to

1:21:40an additional comment if we could just if you could. Mayor Chair Downer just so that we're on

1:21:46on the same page today according to the province whatever we approve riders must be at least 16

1:21:54years old and they have to wear a helmet if they're under 18 so anyone 16 or 17 will have to wear a

1:22:01helmet anyone under 16 will not be allowed so we can we have to follow the provincial guidelines

1:22:08so just to clarify that. Okay thank you Mayor Guthrie. Okay are there any more questions than before

1:22:18okay comment. Thank you. Thank you Madam Chair through you yeah I just before you call the

1:22:25vote I just think this is I think this is great I will say that I'm disappointed that we're not

1:22:33moving to an opportunity for ride share program I did just come back from Denver on a conference

1:22:39there and I talked to so many Denverites I don't know if that's what they're called but

1:22:46who absolutely adore them they weren't scattered all over the place I talked to actually the company

1:22:53that provided them because they had vans at night and during the day that would go out and

1:22:57and take care of them and people absolutely adored them I think private use is our first step

1:23:05Madam Chair but we need we we are behind like we are behind we should not have said no

1:23:13to this a few years ago we we look at all the surrounding communities that are already way

1:23:18ahead of us on this and you know who's ahead of us on this the citizens they're already doing it

1:23:25so this is going to bring them into compliance which is part of our role here to bring people

1:23:29into compliance and under the regulations that they should we should have in place for safety

1:23:34and other considerations as well so I really do hope that this comes together and and we get some

1:23:39good data from the private use but I really hope that we have a conversation soon about other

1:23:45rideshare programs both e scooter and bicycle for that last mile and we I know that there's

1:23:51lots of companies that would love to do an RFP for our city because I've been asked by many of them

1:23:57over the last few years and it costs us zero dollars zero they handle it all and and it's

1:24:07another way of people being able to get around in an environmentally and cost effective way

1:24:13so I really hope this is our first step madam chair as we go on to other steps

1:24:17in the future as well I think we we need to catch up are there any other comments

1:24:26questions comments okay I'll call the vote is there anyone opposed that carries okay I have no

1:24:36announcements are there any staff announcements was there an issue okay I don't believe there's

1:24:53any staff announcements there so thank you everyone that's the conclusion of our committee of the whole