Bird Canada e-scooters parked in downtown Vernon (photo by Liam Verster / Vernon Matters)

By Liam Verster

E-Scooter/Bike Report

Vernon council asks for report on e-scooter, e-bikes

May 26, 2025 | 5:59 PM

The City of Vernon wants to hear from the company providing electric kick scooters and bicycles in the community.

Bird Canada took over operations of the e-scooters and e-bikes this year, and Vernon City Council issued a request at the regular meeting Monday, May 26, that the company come before council with information on how the program was operating.

The request was brought forward by Councillor Brian Quiring, as he wanted to know how often the company was collecting the e-bikes and scooters and moving them out of “the middle of sidewalks.”

“One of the significant problems with the bicycles is that, if it’s in front of your place of business, in front of your door, or in the middle of the sidewalk, you can’t move them because the wheels are locked. You’ve actually got to rent it to move it,” Quiring explained at Monday’s meeting.

“So I want to know how often they’re actually going around and doing their inventory and, because it seems to be a new problem. They really are scattered all over the place and a lot of them don’t get moved.”

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Mayor Victor Cumming also said he wanted Bird Canada to come before council to provide ridership data.

“My observation is use is way down,” the Mayor said during Monday’s meeting.

“I don’t know if that’s about price or about the vehicles or what it is, but my perception is it’s way down.

“Neuron had a volume of individuals with monthly passes, and I’m wondering if Bird has a monthly pass program. These are some of the questions I think [we should ask].”

The city previously used Neuron Mobility as the provider of e-bikes and e-scooters, who did provide regular updates to council over the four years operating in Vernon, which the Mayor said was “extremely valuable.”

“We not only found out what they were doing, but it gave us the opportunity to make adjustments,” Cumming told Vernon Matters following the meeting.

“They’re all electronically set up so they can make adjustments about where they’re parked, how far they can go, what’s the limits, how you can actually park it in different spots. So it was helpful.”

He added those meetings also allowed council to make suggestions on how the e-scooter and e-bike programs operated in Vernon, and wanted that to be prioritized again with the new provider.

City staff will arrange for Bird Canada to come before council at a later date.