New purple electric scooters on sidewalks and street corners around Fredericton are garnering positive and negative attention. Grade 12 student Brookyln Bellmore has used an electric scooter before and said it’s a good idea. “I think it’s a good way for people to get around if they don’t have cars,” she said. But others like resident Veronica Christian have concerns. “I really dislike the speed they go on the walking bridge,” she said. “Some of the young people go fast and they don’t all wear helmets.” The reactions aren’t new to Steven McArthur, owner of the rental company MoVe Scooters. He has already set up electric scooters in Moncton and Saint John. “It’s 50/50 with any city we go to. Fifty per cent of people love it and 50 per cent of people hate it. And then they seem to fight with each other on Facebook about it,” he said. He said the scooters are limited to 25 km/h, and that limit drops to 15 km/h in certain zones like bike trails. Users are also required to take a picture of the parked scooter before ending their session and McArthur said his app uses AI to verify it’s parked in an appropriate location. “If there is any issues with parking or anything like that, they can go to our support, we’ll have someone come out right away and take care of it,” he said. The scooters will have helmets in the future, but for now he said users have to bring their own. His business is receiving a warm welcome from Josh Hambrook, Fredericton’s Ward 7 city councillor and chair of the Economic Prosperity and Growth Planning Committee. “I see it as a positive alternative to driving vehicles downtown, especially when you can drop them off anywhere,” Hambrook said. McArthur hopes to expand his rentals beyond Atlantic Canada to international locations — ones that don’t have winter. “Next year we’ll see where the road takes us,” he said. For more New Brunswick news, visit our dedicated provincial page.
