E-scooters should be banned in Mississauga, says deputy mayor

E-scooters should be banned in Mississauga, says one of the city’s deputy mayors who believes the electric mobility devices pose a serious threat to the safety of kids and others.

“These things scare the hell out of me …,” Ward 8 Coun. and Deputy Mayor Matt Mahoney said in concluding his remarks at a recent City of Mississauga general committee meeting.

“I hate these scooters and I want them banned,” Mahoney, one of the city’s two deputy mayors, told senior city staff and fellow councillors in his earlier comments.

A vocal critic of the city’s e-scooter/e-bike rental program since shortly after it was launched in early summer 2024, the councillor took more direct aim this time at privately owned e-scooters in Mississauga — and not those supplied to residents by the city for a rental fee during the year’s warmer months.

Mahoney said what he sees as an “alarming” safety issue was brought front of mind again during a couple of recent experiences while driving.

Travelling at about 40 km/h in his car on Loyalist Drive in west Erin Mills, the councillor said he was passed by an e-scooter, “… probably a 15- or 16-year-old kid without a helmet. He passed me.”

Ward 8 Coun. and Deputy Mayor Matt Mahoney wants e-scooters banned in Mississauga.

On another occasion, Mahoney said he spotted “a father with, I would say, a five-, six-, seven-year-old kid riding (an e-scooter) on Glen Erin without helmets on, and the kid was in front (on the e-scooter) …”

He also expressed worry that high school kids are travelling on e-scooters at unsafe speeds to and from classes.

“I think if you polled the high schools out there to see how many of these kids are bringing these scooters that are going 60 km/h to school, I think it’s a bit alarming,” said Mahoney.

“I hate these scooters and I want them banned,” he continued, “but we’ll get to that at another date.”

For now, the deputy mayor said, he wants to know how city officials and/or police — the latter, he noted, are “already under-resourced” — can strictly enforce rules of the road related to e-scooters.

Councillor wants “a better understanding”

Mahoney asked senior city staff to help give him “a better understanding of how we’re going to police them because, again, when you have 15-year-old kids riding around doing 60 km/h without helmets on, and we have no ability to police it, how do we get ahead of that? And I promise everybody it’s going to get worse.”

He said those speeding around on the electric mobility devices aren’t men and women “with suits and briefcases riding these scooters to work; it’s kids with backpacks going to high school.

“These things scare the hell out of me … I don’t want them, but I understand that I probably don’t have full support on that,” Mahoney continued.

“Outside of the vendors’ scooters in our pilot project, these private scooters are becoming more and more of an issue,” he said, adding they may be “an unintended consequence of us implementing this pilot project.”

Responding to Mahoney, city solicitor Graham Walsh said staff will look into the matter and come back at a later date with more information.

In the meantime, Walsh added that enforcing safe e-scooter behaviour doesn’t need to involve police as the city itself can enforce existing provincial regulations and, if it so chooses, pass local bylaws determining where the devices can be used.

City’s e-scooter program will be reviewed

Mississauga’s e-scooter/e-bike rental program, which has encountered some difficulties getting off the ground, will soon be under review once again as it completes its second season in the city.

The City of Mississauga initiative has over the past two years made some 900 electric scooters and 300 electric bikes available for people to rent and use at various places including parks, the downtown core and other neighbourhoods throughout the city.

The e-scooters, which are rented out spring through fall (until winter weather hits), have been the focus of concern for Mississauga city councillors and many residents since summer 2024 — particularly when it comes to properly parking the devices instead of leaving them strewn about the city, particularly in waterfront areas, as was the case last year.

Mayor wanted the program scrapped last year

The matter was especially concerning to Mayor Carolyn Parrish, who following year one of the program last fall suggested scrapping the program altogether.

However, senior city staff and the city’s outside partners in the initiative brainstormed to find solutions as the program entered year two this past spring.

The e-bikes, meanwhile, have not posed any significant issues to date. They’re available for rent year-round.

After a delay of several weeks, Mississauga launched the second season of its e-scooter and e-bike rental program back on May 16. Season two came with the addition of more than 100 new parking stations to help provide “a more orderly and controlled approach to parking,” city officials said at the time.

The extra parking locations were also expected to “help keep regular public bike racks available for personal devices” as the city looked to eliminate several major problems associated with year one of the program in 2024.