Vote for Laura-Maria Nikolareizi in Ward 10 - Spadina-Fort York

Q1: Do you believe that increasing electric micro-mobility use in Toronto will help reduce carbon emissions, help Toronto meet its climate goals, and reduce traffic and car use?

A1: As a 20-year resident in Ward 10 my 11-year-old son and I both own electric scooters to help us navigate around the city of Toronto. We use our scooters to live, work, play, move and prosper in our community. Electric scooters are one of the most environmentally friendly modes of transport. The number of emissions released into the air is decreased when individuals switch from cars to e-scooters. Additionally, it aids in lowering traffic and noise pollution on our roads. If you make reference to my website I am promoting a net-zero city and mobility efficiency and electric scooters are one of the means of transportation that I am promoting.

Q2: Do you support legalizing the use of e-scooters in the City of Toronto based on rules in other major Canadian cities including sensible safety measures?

A2: As your Toronto City Councillor for Ward 10 Spadina Fort York because it lowers car traffic in the city. It keeps our carbon footprint low. It is a means of transportation that is equitable and affordable to buy. But we must have in place some restrictions such as the speed limit for e-scooters perhaps be reduced from 25km/h to 20km/h on roads, and 6km/h in pedestrian areas without cars. The e-scooter riders will be required to follow the same laws for bicycles or obey standard traffic laws, or they have laws specific to them. We must also introduce mandatory helmets as a mandatory for all riders.

Q3: Shared and rental e-scooters include many additional safety features including speed limiters and GPS locking to prevent riding in forbidden areas. These services have been very successful in other Canadian cities and in Europe. Do you support allowing shared and rental e-scooter services in the City of Toronto?

A3. The City of Toronto could financially benefit from tendering or managing the use of shared or rental of scooters in our city. The city could consider awarding ¾ companies that are locally based businesses from the City of Toronto because we must support our own local businesses to tender for a license to operate and supply scooters to the city. If we tender out a license then the city would collect 30% of the profit and re-invest that money back to roads, sidewalk repairs, city programs, the environment and the rest goes to the company. But the operators would have to place local teams to coordinate, do maintenance with the scooters. But it certainly is something to discuss at Toronto City Council.