Late last May at the legislative assembly, Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins showed off his knack for poetry and concern for safety around e-scooters.
"If Dr. Seuss was here today, he might say about e-scooters, something along the lines of, 'I see them zip. I see them zag. On the sidewalks, on the roads, everywhere, who knows? Between cars, between people, eek! The next time I see them laying flat under a steeple. No brake lights for me as they glide through the intersection. Fools only stop. Helmets, signals, intersection stops. Nary a one as they flip their top. Mr. Speaker, it's time to say stop, stop, stop.'"
Getting on to his next verse, Hawkins said it's time for the GNWT to start looking into regulations on e-scooters, citing Toronto as an example to follow.
"Cities like Toronto have banned them (and) the Ontario government has done an opt-in process by saying all scooters are banned unless you come up with regulations in your own way," he said.
But despite the ban Toronto has on e-scooters, it doesn't appear to be quite effective. The city's population stands at about three million people, and according to the City of Toronto in 2020, eight per cent of residents have used or rented an e-scooter. People between 16 to 34 years old are also five times more likely to have used or rented an e-scooter than people who are 55 years old or older, they reported.
In 2023, Toronto police apparently issued less than 100 tickets to people riding e-scooters or bikes on sidewalks.
Janet Pacey is an avid e-scooter rider in Yellowknife. She said she tends to use it three to four times a week.
And when it comes to being safe, Pacey said she treats riding an e-scooter like a bicycle.
"I'm very careful," she said.
Pacey added she also uses less popular paths to get to work and avoids the main roads. That, and she's not sure if regulations are the way to go.
"I think it's more education and people should know not to be riding sidewalks downtown facing traffic," she said. "They should be riding with traffic and being smart about it."
If there were any regulations to add, Pacey said she feels a minimum age limit to start riding an e-scooter would be a good start.
"I've seen some very small kids riding motorized scooters down the sidewalks, going the wrong way, and that's a recipe for disaster, especially not wearing helmets and safety equipment," she said.
But Pacey also said she absolutely wants to see more people riding them.
"I think it's about being smart when you're riding. If people are using the sidewalk because they're nervous of the roads, don't go down the middle of Franklin Avenue, go down the side roads and avoid the traffic," she said.
As for Hawkins, he stressed he's not against e-scooters.
"My primary goal is safety," he said.
Hawkins added that he's still waiting to hear back from Infrastructure Minister Caroline Wawzonek about his query.
He mentioned that bicycles and pedestrians are regulated for safety, but scooters that can go up to 60 km/h on sidewalks and roads, without helmets or lights with no current rules that consider a rider's safety or those around them.
"I've heard from different people over the last while that they're concerned of people weaving through people," he said.
Hawkins suggested to treat e-scooters as vehicles on the road and going in the right direction as some initial thoughts.