Fredericton looks to make helmets mandatory for e-scooters – New Brunswick | 24CA News
It could quickly be unlawful to journey an e-scooter with no helmet in Fredericton.
Fredericton metropolis council mentioned modifications to the town’s mobility bylaw on Monday night time, which might deliver e-scooters underneath the prevailing guidelines governing the path system for cyclists.
“We’re trying to formalize everything in a way that it’s clear to the public what’s permitted on the trails, what’s not permitted on the trails and what’s expected of everyone,” mentioned Tyson Aubie, a site visitors engineer for the town.
If handed at third studying, e-scooter riders could be explicitly topic to helmet bylaws and path velocity limits. The high-quality for breaking the bylaw begins at $25 and might develop to $1,100 for many who repeatedly fail to pay the fines.
Aubie mentioned the town will seemingly begin with an schooling marketing campaign to present individuals the possibility to adapt and be taught the foundations, reasonably than levying fines instantly for many who could also be unknowingly breaking the brand new guidelines.
“I think step one is going to be education, I think the city is going to go on quite an education campaign to really get this message out to people,” he mentioned.
“I definitely don’t think it would be fair for the city to just start handing out tickets once this is approved.”
The proposed modifications would additionally tweak the velocity restrict on the town’s trails, which is at present set at 15 km/h. If authorized, the amended bylaw would set the overall velocity restrict at 25 km/h. Aubie mentioned the town discovered the restrict was fairly low, stating that one other member of the town’s engineering group can jog at a tempo of 16 km/h, technically breaking the prevailing bylaw.
Chair of the town’s mobility committee, Bruce Grandy, mentioned that the brand new velocity restrict will work effectively within the much less pedestrian heavy areas of the path community, because it strikes away from the Bill Thorpe Walking Bridge and the South and North aspect river entrance parts of the path system.
“We want to make sure that there’s a decent speed in there, as long as you meet the etiquette requirements, the helmets the bells.”
In extra pedestrian heavy areas the velocity restrict will probably be restricted to 10 km/h, which is the present restrict on the Bill Thorpe Walking Bridge. Aubie mentioned the town will begin different areas to impose that newer restrict if and when the proposed modifications are authorized.
“I’d say the North Riverfront Trail, the South Riverfront Trial—places where you have a lot of density, a lot of people walking, a lot of conflict,” he mentioned.
“I think once this gets approved at third reading we’re going to go on kind of a deep dive on what segments of trail really should have that.”
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