E-scooters and e-bikes could be up for rent again in Windsor in just in a few months.
A report going to the Feb. 28 Windsor City Council meeting recommends that administration purse a micro-mobility program for 2022 by renewing Bird Canada’s existing contract under the same terms and conditions.
In May 2021, the company introduced rentable e-scooters as part of a pilot project with the City of Windsor.
Chris Schafer, Vice President, Government Affairs at Bird Canada, says they're excited about the potential return given how the e-scooters and e-bikes were embraced in Windsor.
"We saw great adoption for something that was new, a new form of transportation in the city," he says. "We expect even greater adoption this year as ridership, really viewing e-scooters as a novelty to using them more as reliable mode of transportation."
As part of the pilot project in 2021, Windsor had the highest average distance travelled and highest average ride duration across all markets in Canada with active Bird Canada e-scooter programs. The longest ride taken in Windsor was 43 kilometers.
Between May 2, 2021 and Nov. 30, 2021, Bird Canada recorded a total of 130,756 rides in Windsor, with 27,284 unique riders.
The average distance travelled was 4.3-kilometers, with the average duration of any trip at 27-minutes and 20 seconds.
Schafer says travel patterns shifted during the pandemic as more people worked from home.
"I anticipate as we come out of COVID, hopefully, and more people are perhaps back in the office, if that is to happen, we're going to probably see an adjustment where more people using the e-scooter and e-bike to get to and from work," he says.
Pricing for the e-scooters starts at $1.15 and costs 35 cents per minute for the duration of the ride.