I Have Seen the Future

My home town of Calgary introduced e-scooters this summer. I see the same companies (Bird and Lime) operating in Tel Aviv. There is a broad “bicycle” and pedestrian pathway that runs along the beach. In the mornings the pathway is filled with joggers and a few cyclists. That changes dramatically as the day progresses and warms up.

Julia and I walked the pathway in the afternoon and it was a bit jarring. The maximum e-scooter speed in my home town of Calgary is 20km/hr. In Tel Aviv the maximum legal speed is 25km/hr. Modifications are common and there also lots of modified e-bikes. I saw a few e-bikes that were closer to Harleys than bicycles. I’d estimate that only 25% of the bike lane traffic was conventional bicycles. The rest was a mix of e-bikes and e-scooters and some of them were capable of 30+km/hr speeds. The “bike” lanes are in close proximity to the pedestrian walkways so it’s an adventure to stroll along the beach here.

Rounding up the e-scooters.

For Calgary’s summer 2020, I see ever increasing e-scooter traffic and a huge increase in e-bike traffic. There will be some high profile accidents/deaths. Increased regulation and/or the promise of increased enforcement will follow. Decreased compliance and hacking of e-scooters and e-bikes will become commonplace.

PS in a perfect world I would have taken a time lapse video of the traffic while sitting at a beachside cafe.