Scooting to restaurants and shops is becoming popular in downtown

The numbers are in and it’s official – more than half the riders enjoying shared e-scooters and e-bikes are using them to visit Calgary’s downtown and inner-city businesses.

Location data collected during our pilot project for shared e-scooters and e-bikes show us that users are completing their trip in a Calgary Business Revitalization Zone (BRZ) or Business Improvement Area (BIA).

And that’s great news for local business owners.

“The location data showed us that many Calgarians are riding to areas where there are a lot of restaurants and retail stores such as on 17 Avenue S.W. and Stephen Avenue,” says Andrew Sedor, Business Development Coordinator with The City of Calgary. Providing the location data collected from the pilot online makes Calgary one of the first cities in Canada to share this information – and at no additional cost to the public. Businesses may find viewing this data useful for learning about the popular routes and the destinations of people using these new devices. The location data in map form is available at data.calgary.ca.

Seeing how Calgarians and visitors were enjoying using shared e-scooters to travel to downtown area businesses is extremely helpful, says David Low, Executive Director of Victoria Park Business Improvement Area (BIA).

“Having access to this data is a great Christmas gift for us as now we will know exactly where people are going and ending their ride and how long they’re staying in the Victoria Park area,” says Low. “We plan on using the data to make better community planning decisions and come up with new ways to generate traffic to the events we have happening this summer like the Sled Island Music & Arts Festival. This will allow us to make the place more interesting and vibrant for people to enjoy.”

In the first phase of the pilot, Calgarians were quick to try using a shared e-scooter or e-bike with more than 915,000 recorded rides to date. They were just as keen to provide their opinion as more than 9,200 Calgarians filled out an online survey. Results from the public survey are online now.

The location data and survey results has taught us about the riding habits of citizens using shared mobility options. Survey results indicated that the majority of people riding shared e-scooters and e-bikes are using them to complete errands, appointments, go to a restaurant or shop, for recreation and use them to get to and from work.

The GPS and mapping work was funded through the fees collected from the permitted operators. The City collected and analyzed the location data and survey feedback to make data-led decisions to improve the safety and experience for users of the shared mobility pilot for the next phase. So, if you missed using a shared e-scooter to travel to your favourite restaurant downtown, don’t worry -- as soon as the snow and ice melts they will be back for spring 2020.

For more information about the shared mobility pilot projects, please visit calgary.ca/bikeshare and calgary.ca/scootershare.

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Calgary’s e-scooter and e-bike pilot by numbers:

Number of permitted operators: 2 (Bird Canada and Lime)

Number of e-bikes and e-scooters approved for operation: 500 shared e-Bikes and 1,500 shared e-Scooters

Number of trips recorded: 915,000

Number of kilometers travelled: 1.6 million-

Average trip length: 1.2 kilometers

Median trip duration: 10 minutes

Number of unique customers: 150,000 (that’s over 10% of Calgarians)