The Town of LaSalle is looking at new ways to crack down on what the mayor calls a growing problem involving e-scooters and other motorized vehicles.
Mayor Crystal Meloche says she’s hearing complaints from residents on a daily basis, with some young riders speeding through neighbourhoods and along town trails without helmets or lights.
She says the town kicked off the summer with an education campaign, and police have been actively ticketing riders breaking the rules. However, she says enforcement is more difficult on town trails where the Highway Traffic Act doesn’t apply in the same way.
At Tuesday’s council meeting, administration was asked to come back with a report on what additional measures the town could take. That could include restrictions of motorized vehicles on LaSalle’s trail network.
The concern comes as new national statistics highlight the dangers around e-bikes and e-scooters. The Canadian Paediatric Society says there were 57 severe e-scooter injuries involving children in 2025, including 10 deaths.
Meloche says the situation has gotten worse and is putting both riders and community members at risk.
“I receive emails and phone calls almost daily, as do other members of council. And the concern, I know residents, sometimes parents will say, ‘let kids be kids’, but in this situation, it’s very dangerous. We’re seeing kids going faster than cars. We’re seeing no helmets, no lights at night, not following Highway Traffic Act, riding double on a bike.”
She says the town is trying to balance accessibility with public safety.
“It wouldn’t be a problem if they were following the rules, but they’re not. Many of these kids technically are riding against the law. It’s supposed to be age 16 plus to be able to use these. And a lot of parents don’t know that when they purchase them for their kids or they purchase them thinking, ‘oh, they’ll just stay in the neighbourhood and they’ll go slowly and they’ll be safe’. And unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case right now.”
She says the town has seen some people being injured, and they don’t want the situation to escalate.
“We’ve had a few people injured on trails. We have had someone hit on their bike just a couple weeks ago... no significant injuries that I’m aware of, but we do have some injuries reported already. So it is a growing problem and it is a big safety concern and we need to make sure we do whatever we can to protect our residents.”
Meloche says some of the tickets could be not wearing a helmet, not being of age to ride the motorized vehicles, or not following the rules of the road.
She adds that the education campaign will continue over the next few weeks while council waits for recommendations on additional enforcement or restrictions on town trails.