After a brief dalliance, Montreal’s executive committee announced a ban on communal trottinettes-électriques from city streets, citing a near total and flagrant disregard for the city’s traffic bylaws. (CBC)

Talking point: “We have to call this a failure,” said city councillor Eric Allan Caldwell of last summer’s pilot project with the battery-powered scooters. The numbers are telling: eight of 10 scooter users responsible for the more than 220,000 scooter trips on the island ignored the rules of the road—including the one against rolling on the damn sidewalk—and only 20 per cent obeyed parking restrictions. Montreal police issued 324 tickets for failing to wear a helmet, though either good luck or some sort of deity ensured no one was seriously injured. Montreal becomes the first major Canadian city to ban e-scooters after a trial; it follows several other e-scooter restrictions around the world, including across the U.K.