Carbon fiber-reinforced safety shell of BMW i3 electric car.

Carbon taxes are seen as way to reduce use of polluting fossil fuels like coal used to generate electric power.

US Energy Secretary Steven Chu with mockup of Chevrolet Volt battery pack behind him.

Nissan LEAF taxis station outside St. Paul's Cathedral in London.

NEWS

FRI

02-Nov-2012

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Time to Regulate E-Scooters

National Post columnist opines on the conflict between e-bikes and e-scooters/mopeds on Toronto bikeways.

You’ve got to admit that two-wheeled electric-powered personal transport is immensely practical and great fun. It is also, however, an increasing source of inter-vehicular conflict, an expansion of the existing multi-faceted war among the tribes of urban transport. The existing battles are already fierce among the dominant automobile, the engine-revving motorcycle, the anarchic pedal bicycle and the far more numerous but vulnerable pedestrian. Now comes a powerful but erratic insurgent: e-scooters.

They climb curbs, are driven along sidewalks, barrel along bike lanes and cruise mid-road down city streets at 30 kilometers an hour. They are silent-engine intruders that are upsetting the general cease-fire conditions that currently prevail in Great Toronto Auto Bike and Pedestrian War of 2012.

The trouble with the e-scooter is that there is no place for it, no territory where it can legitimately settle and call home. Under existing Ontario regulation, it is not a motorcycle, and therefore does not require any insurance or a licence to operate, so long as its total engine power does not exceed 500 watts and top speed is limited to 32 kilometres an hour.

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