An e-scooter and e-bike sharing pilot project has been given the green light in Windsor.
Over the next couple of months 500 scooters and 100 bikes will be installed at several locations in Wards 2, 3, 4 and 5.
The 12-month pilot project will be rolled out at no cost to the city with the proponent, Bird Canada Inc., covering the entire cost.
Ward 4 councillor Chris Holt says it took years to get the program off the ground.
"It takes time to set these things up as you can imagine," says Holt. "We're going to be collecting the data for the usage and just see if it makes sense to move forward and what changes that we can make to it. So hopefully this spring we'll be seeing some scooters and electric bikes out there on the roads."
He says the program will serve the city's core neighbourhoods.
"So between Sandwich and Ford City and north of Tecumseh Rd. So we'll see, council did give the thumbs up to it and we'll get the data," he says. "I really do hope that it proves to be a sustainable addition to the services around the city."
Holt says, while it's not the robust program he envisioned, it's nice to see the wheels turning on a pilot.
"I've been involved in the cycling community for 20 or 25 years," says Holt. "I have to stand back and say, "baby steps, we're moving in the right direction." It might not be perfect, but at least we're getting something out there and we're seeing some progress."
The Bird e-scooter and e-bike company currently has operations in over 120 cities across the globe.
There's no word yet what the cost to rent the devices will be locally, but in the U.S. customers pay $1 to unlock and 15-cents per minute to ride.