I’d like to address Council regarding its plan to limit escooter use in Regina.
Sincerely, John Klein
===
Your Worship and city council:
This is going to sound a bit like a scolding, but it’s only because I care enough to say something, again.
I was here recently at the executive committee, and heard more people voice concerns about your plan to restrict private use of escooters in Regina, than I heard residents supporting the idea. Yet a small majority of Councillors voted down Councillor Mancinelli’s effort to permit private escooters. Councillor Hawkins said he completely agreed with the logic, but not until 2024. Presumably Reginans are a bit slow, eh, and need yet another year to adapt to the fact that kick scooters can have electric motors on them. I don’t think it’s a good reason to use up the Council’s & Administration’s time a year hence, to undo a limitation that could result in needlessly consuming police resources.
Why hassle some people scooting around Regina on their own escooters or One Wheels, Segways, hoverboards, electric skateboards, or electric unicycles, even though there are other people who pay rents for the same privilege. There are even past and current members of council who’ve used these fun devices in our city and abroad, so it’s really absurd to be banning them primarily so you can treat Regina as a monopolistic laboratory to collect untainted data. If only that fastidiousness was employed in studying how to prevent more carnage wrought by drivers every darn day.
What is your motivation in creating so much paperwork over something so simple and important? Perhaps one could assume that by constructing a more complex bylaw than the one you made for regulating motor vehicles like Ubers, that your effort is designed to limit how many people use zero-emission transportation options. Why would you do that, in contravention of your Energy & Sustainability Framework? I could surmise that you might see escooters that cost only two pennies to recharge, as a viable competitor with automobiles that cost 80 times that much to fill with only 1 litre of gasoline. They might compete with your beloved oil refinery, or your possible financial interests in automobile repair or sales in your other careers? Maybe they’d undermine your investments in stocks or banks that might devalue if people stopped using so much oil? I’m sure anyone with a conflict of interest would recuse themselves from a vote if there were any doubts about their motivation in limiting cleaner transportation options.
Council has the ability to pass bylaws, so when something new arrives, it might be this council’s instinct to pass a meaty new bylaw with shiny bells and data collection whistles. Have you heard the expression, that when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail? Maybe the best idea is to put down the hammer. Stop reinventing the wheel, and treat escooters exactly like ebikes. They’re close cousins, they only differ by missing pedals and a seat. Councillor Hawkins may be a fan of big government, creating meaty bylaws that need tweaking next year to ensure more paperwork for City Hall to put through, but there is a better way today.
Give Reginans some credit, please. And give them an escooter/ebike rebate too. There would not be pandemonium if everyone went out and bought an electric kick scooter tomorrow. You could give $500 rebates to the first 5000 residents buying them, because you’d have a lot less damage to your streets from those vehicles, than from the heavy cars and trucks many of you favour.
I guarantee you that there will never be an escooter rider crash through a store front, knock down a street sign, or careen into a house and cause tens of thousands of dollars in property damage from careless or reckless use. You can’t say the same for drivers of cars. You’ve taken your eye off the ball. Our devotion to ecology has resulted in a system of over 100 parks. Our highly livable city needs to be connected in a way that we can use kick scooters to get between those parks as easily as if we wanted to hop into an F-150 to go cruising down Albert St and through Wascana Centre.
In my remaining time, I’d like to remind you that we’re in a climate crisis, and escooters produce no emissions in Regina since they don’t have tailpipes. Think of it this way: Pretend we know it’s going to flood, so someone invents the sandbag to mitigate the damage. Being a new invention, City Council wants to regulate sandbags, and limit them to 500 units for at least a year, just to be safe. You also have to rent them, you can’t make your own, just in case someone leaves their sandbags lying around carelessly, or hits someone with a sandbag. Congrats, Regina is safe from the scourge of sandbags, but is a bit vulnerable to the flood still. You’ve taken your eye off the ball.
Showing My Regina, John Klein Regina, SK
UPDATE: Somewhat shockingly, Cllr. Hawkins responded to my delegation and asked me if he thought it was only he who was a bit slow, not Reginans overall. I didn’t know what to respond with, so asked if he was reconsidering, and he said I’d see him move at light speed soon. All of Council then supported Cllr. Mancinelli’s new amendment to allow private escooter use in Regina.
Did I ever tell you about the time that police detained me on Scarth St.? Of course I did, but that’s a whole other story.
If Scarth Street does get converted back to allow vehicles, I propose we all just continue to walk down the middle of it and stare in confusion at those who drive down it. That’s called tactical urbanism. https://t.co/UYft1EUjSX
I've always thought that the thing missing from Scarth St. whenever I'm walking to the @CornwallCentre, was far more car traffic. Sooo glad this Mayor is taking that into account with her effort to finish it off.
I'm right there with you. I keep having thoughts running through my head ever since the announcement of chaining myself to a bulldozer in an attempt to stop it from happening. It's so blatantly absurd and such a giant FUCK YOU to pedestrians and the whole city in general.
Thank you to everyone who came out to this event, asked questions & listened. A big congrats to the students in Urban Planning for sharing their ideas & engaging with the public today. #GESUofR#yqr#yqrcchttps://t.co/Be8n0JBggV
I’d like to speak to Council regarding their plan to prohibit private escooters, while allowing only corporate owned ones.
John
====
To the committee:
Why are you planning to allow only dynamic business leaders to rent escooters to people? Many people in Regina already own electric mobility devices, but you don’t think people should own and use them? You run a city rife with oversized trucks and SUVs endangering everyone and killing some people in regular sized motor vehicles, as well as other people who walk and bike. Instead, you’re going to limit the mobility choices of people doing something positive today to help the City of Regina meet its Net Zero sustainability target.
It makes no sense, and I doubt any of you could explain to me why it’s a good plan. What constituents even think it’s a good idea? Please don’t prevent people from using their own e-scooters. They cost only 2 cents to recharge, plus they’re affordable, unlike vehicles that burn gasoline at $1.59/L.
Making One Wheels, hoverboards, and escooters illegal to use practically everywhere, limiting the amount of vibrancy and fun the people in our city are allowed to have, that’s a bad joke. You’ve the option to create over-regulation to limit fun. You could make it easier to drive a large, fuel inefficient car like many of you own, or you could make it easier for people to use a 40lb, zero emission e-mobility device like I use.
I e-bike around Regina year-round. And speaking for people with a devotion to ecology who both care about the habitability of our city, and for those who want to retain the freedom to make good transportation choices, you should not treat escooters differently from ebikes. It’s easiest if you apply ebike rules to One Wheels, escooters, hoverboards, and future personal transportation technologies.
I asked one of my kids what he thought of your escooter ban and he said, “It’s stupid.” He then said some things I can’t repeat to this committee, but they were funny, and referenced a popular meme involving Will Smith. He’s not happy about the ban and your plan to limit mobility to people living (or being driven to) where escooters can be rented from. I think the only people happy with your plan will be the ones who own escooter rental businesses. And while their view counts, it shouldn’t be the last word on limiting mobility options for people in Regina.
John Klein - Regina 