Re: Olds scooter owners want action on their concerns
The rules set forth by the provincial government don’t need to be changed, they just need to be interpreted correctly, and the clarification isn’t about the scooter, it’s about who is using it and whether they are following pedestrian rules for highway use.
Under the Traffic Safety Act of Alberta, “mobility aid” means a device used to facilitate the transport, in a normal seated orientation, of a person with a physical disability; and defines a person in or on a mobility aid as a “pedestrian.”
Disability is what makes the scooter a mobility aid, which exempts it from classification as a vehicle at all: off road, miniature, requiring insurance and licensing, or otherwise.
If the town requires proof of disability for pedestrian use of a scooter, and to ensure safety for all, an eligibility process similar to disabled parking placard eligibility can be instituted without any provincial assistance.
The town can even designate disabled parking for these mobility aids.
The Alberta Traffic Act states under General Powers of Municipality that “the council of a municipality may, with respect to a highway under its direction, control and management, make bylaws that are not inconsistent with this Act, doing the following: Classifying motor vehicles and other vehicles and pedestrians for any purposes involving the use of streets, lanes and other public places.
Pedestrians are to use sidewalks where available, and where absent or impassable, pedestrians are to be on the far left side of the roadway facing oncoming traffic.
Pedestrians are to use crosswalks, and vehicles are to yield to the pedestrian. Pedestrians are to yield to vehicles if crossing between intersections. Failure to abide safely with use of highways may result in citations or other consequence.
Pedestrians may be approached by officers and asked for identifying information if they are not using the highways in a safe manner. If the town is concerned about road use where sidewalks exist, the solution is to fix the sidewalks.
There is no further description of a mobility aid in the Alberta Traffic Act beyond something used by a seated person with a disability to move around, and minister of Transportation and Economic Corridors Devin Dreeshen was quoted in the article as saying “there is no set criteria for how many elements of a motor vehicle can be added before the device stops being considered a mobility aid.”
This is because it is the person with the disability, not the equipment, that gives rise to the legal classification of mobility aid. So enclosed or not makes no difference, it’s about who is sitting in the seat.
The town does not need authority to create bylaws around scooters, it just needs to recognize its restriction of powers in excluding pedestrians from generally using highways, where “highway” means any thoroughfare, street, road, trail, avenue, parkway, driveway, viaduct, lane, alley, square, bridge, causeway, trestleway or other place or any part of any of them, whether publicly or privately owned, that the public is ordinarily entitled or permitted to use for the passage or parking of vehicles.”
Pedestrians are allowed everywhere, so long as they are acting in a safe manner.
G. Morrison,
Didsbury
