E-scooter companies are once again trying to stake their claims on Canada’s streets, with summer around the corner. The industry has faced an uneven rollout so far: Montreal has deemed its e-scooter pilot a “failure,” while Calgary apparently used Lime scooters more than any other city in the world during the summers of 2019 and 2020. 

Now, the City of Ottawa has chosen three scooter companies—Bird Canada, Lime and Neuron—for the second year of its pilot program. This marks the entry of Singapore-based Neuron (which operates in Australia, New Zealand, the U.K. and South Korea) into the Canadian market. 

But Neuron may face an uphill battle. Lime laid off nearly all of its full-time Canadian employees last year as part of global headcount cuts during the pandemic.  

Neuron plans to hire about 50 temporary or permanent workers in Ottawa for the season, which ends in November. The company said none of them will be gig workers, and all will be paid at least minimum wage. 

Neuron also touts its safety features and ability to adapt to local regulations: automatically slowing the scooter to a halt in no-ride zones; built-in helmets with discounts to riders who take a selfie wearing them pre-trip; and sensors that alert workers when the scooter topples onto the sidewalk.

The Logic spoke with CEO Zachary Wang about the Canadian scooter scene. Here are the highlights:

Ottawa has said e-scooters align with the city’s climate-change objectives. But is it really helping climate change if these trips could be made by walking or biking, instead? 

Voluntary walking trips are where people find it’s nice to walk and it’s near enough to walk. Involuntary walking trips are where there’s no public transport…. Across the world, the average [Neuron scooter] trip length is close to two kilometres. In many cities, I think that goes to the range where it’s a little bit too far to walk…. There is a disincentive for users to jump on an e-scooter if it’s 100 metres or 200 metres, because there is an initial unlock fee. 

Toronto regulators recently turned down an e-scooter pilot, citing potential problems like a lack of parking, insufficient enforcement resources and potential tripping hazards for residents with disabilities. How does Neuron plan to prevent rule violations and deal with parking issues that are also concerns in Ottawa?

[Neuron] will give them a discount as well if they park the e-scooters at designated spots…. We also work very closely with municipalities to share that information, to look at the demand patterns together, so that they can do better infrastructure planning as well, in terms of planning for parking spaces.