Canadian e-bike sales are cruising to new heights. Cities need to catch up

From the heart of Halifax to the streets of verdant Victoria, traditional bicycles — a staple of Canadian urban transportation — have started to cede ground to their faster, electric counterparts.

Roughly 70,000 e-bikes were sold in Canada in 2022, with demand expected to climb by almost 50 per cent this year. They’re acting as delivery vehicles for pizzas and parcels, to gather groceries and get kids to daycare. In some Canadian cities, such as Halifax, emergency services departments have even adopted e-bikes to help them deliver specialized care.

E-bikes are especially popular among marginalized groups and gig workers who are drawn by the lower price point and fewer barriers to entry when compared to car ownership.

The e-bike craze should be embraced — not only because they lead to reduced carbon emissions, but also a host of other benefits, such as easing gridlock in urban cores. This is a good thing, especially in cities where public transit has long been neglected or is too unreliable, and alternatives are sorely needed to help people get around.

But as with any new transportation device, e-bikes have presented municipalities with some new challenges. E-bikes are capable of higher speeds on the city’s multi-use pathways, and occasional accidents and near misses are prompting calls for increased regulation.

At least in this country, however, there is no consistent e-bike regulation. Canada currently has a mishmash of laws and guidelines that vary from one city to the next, leaving riders confused.

Perhaps nowhere is that problem better demonstrated than in Ontario, where governments (both provincial and municipal) seem to be doing everything possible to legislate the bikes into redundancy. And while some guidelines make plenty of sense, others — such as a ban on riders under the age of 16 — are simply bewildering. Ontario is the only jurisdiction in the world to have taken such a step.

There are good reasons to regulate e-bikes — primarily for the riders’ own protection. Studies show faster speeds can lead to more frequent and severe injuries among e-bike riders, compared to other cyclists. Further, the most recent data from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (similar statistics could not be found for Canada) show at least 119 people died in accidents while riding micromobility devices (a category that includes e-bikes as well as e-scooters) between 2017 and 2022.

As the devices become increasingly common, so too will the frequency of accidents — and the elimination of dedicated paths and bike lanes, such as has been pursued by the Ford government, won’t make matters better when it forces e-bike users onto open roads.

It’s precisely that sort of misguided policy that should make governments wary. Cities won’t benefit from erecting artificial barriers, and unhelpful rhetoric that unfairly and irresponsibly targets and vilifies urban cyclists — including e-bike riders — should be tossed in the bin. 

The problem is that there are no clear-cut “best practices” for regulation in this space. At least, not yet. But a good start for any municipality looking to take point on e-bike regulation would be to read and heed the research conducted in the space, such as that of the REACT Lab at the University of British Columbia and its leader, Dr. Alex Bigazzi.

“If we want these paths to work for everyone, we need to build them with the full range of users — and speeds — in mind,” Bigazzi said alongside the release of a recent report.

In simpler words, that means it’s time to get a little more proactive. 

Municipalities can start by imposing (and posting) clear speed limits on all paths and roads where e-bikes are permitted. Higher speeds are often cited as a leading cause of more frequent and severe injury, so this is a logical first step. Regulators should gather better data on e-bike collisions, injuries and deaths in this country, including the causes of the accidents, so that further action is underpinned by actual experience and not simply anecdotal evidence. 

Though some have argued that licensing and insurance requirements should be introduced, such measures would simply turn e-bikes into another plaything exclusively for the well-off, since similar requirements are often cited as barriers that prevent low-income and marginalized people from driving (not to mention how low-income drivers often end up paying more for insurance).

As with cars, enforcement is still an important part of the puzzle. Reckless e-bike riders who endanger other riders and pedestrians on the paths they use must face appropriate consequences, just like reckless drivers.  

But much more important is the education piece, and the linchpin to that is the clear establishment of basic rules, regulations and etiquette around e-bikes — as well as an aggressive public information campaign around the varied and vital benefits of embracing this burgeoning mode of transport, and an equally aggressive expansion of dedicated lanes and paths for cyclists to use.

From a decline in car use (and, subsequently, greenhouse gas emissions) to positive impacts on personal health and uplifting outcomes for urban businesses, e-bikes offer too much opportunity to squander. Municipalities need to stop spinning their wheels.