A Montreal Borough Bans E-Scooters From Its Parks, Trails and Sidewalks
The Montreal borough of Saint-Laurent has adopted a bylaw banning electric scooters and other motorized personal mobility devices in public areas that fall within its jurisdiction — city parks, trails and sidewalks. Councillor Vana Nazarian says the bylaw followed a series of incidents and near misses over the summer, as the popularity of the devices keeps growing. The trauma data explains the appetite for a ban. Deborah Friedman, the trauma director at the Montreal Children's Hospital, says traumatic injuries related to e-scooters are now 14 times the number seen in 2023, when the rules were first introduced.
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The bylaw governs parks, trails and sidewalks. It leaves untouched the rules that decide who can ride where it counts: the provincial pilot lets anyone 14 and older use the devices on roads with speed limits under 50 km/h and on bike paths, with helmets required at all times.
A municipal bylaw is also the smallest available lever, and the trauma director's own list reaches past the borough: she points at manufacturers' labelling and at devices marketed as though they were toys, and says more needs to be done at the provincial and federal levels.
That distinction — vehicle or toy — is the one worth arguing about, and the injury profile is the argument. Close to 20 per cent of the cases require hospitalization, and Friedman's summary is blunt: these are not little cuts and bruises.