In the first year of the e-scooter pilot program in the city, many Airdronians loved to get out and go for a ride.

On Monday, at the latest city council meeting, Chris MacIsaac, Team Leader of Transit for the city brought forward a presentation talking about how the first year went, with the second one on the way.

"We saw great success both from our providers and from the communities' acceptance. We also have some opportunities that I'd like to share with the council this afternoon on how we can make your two of this program even better."

The program that first started on Canada Day saw 39,403 total rides and saw 7,765 unique riders (total reported for each provider, Neuron Mobility and Bird Canada).

"Approximately $20 for every e-scooter ride was an investment in a local business and that local business does not include the E- scooter company themselves. This is $20 that went into a business storefront that calls Airdrie home."

With the second year of the program commencing soon, MacIssac mentioned they are looking to find ways to improve riders' experience, and in speaking with riders and the providers, there was a lack of alignment with slow speed zones.

"We're recommending an alignment with the slow speed that we see in other neighbouring municipalities and municipalities across Canada to increase our slow speed zone from 12 kilometres an hour to 15 kilometres an hour. We also want to ensure that the education campaigns and programs that we put in place in year one will continue through year two and that's not specific just to share these scooters. That's to ensure that all active modes and micro-mobility modes are being recognized and understanding that we are in a shared space."

MacIsaac also wanted to address one of the larger concerns they heard about last year which was around parking etiquette and ensuring that the city has the ability to shape and guide parking we do so.

"One of the examples is in Nose Creek Park, where we put designated shared scooter parking; no different than what we would find in the parking lot for a parking stall for a private vehicle. We will put that close to our regional pathways to ensure that those that are riding share to use theirs are parking them responsibly and respectfully of other park users."

Council was recommended to endorse the recommendation of those changes while also maintaining the existing service providers those being Bird Canada and Neuron Mobility and the limitation on the existing number of shared e-scooters permitted which is a maximum of 100 e-scooters per provider.

"Close to 40,000 rides, I'd say that's pretty outstanding. What a success story" stated Airdrie Mayor Peter Brown.

Many councillors had comments about their concerns with the scooters being parked wrong and blocking off major pathways, with that being said, the city of Airdrie saw a total of 39 complaints about e-scooters,  35 being parking etiquette, three driving etiquette and one vandalized E-scooter.

Councillor Ron Chapman mentioned he used the e-scooters quite often with his granddaughter.

"We would take trips to Nutters to get candy, we would take trips to come downtown to get a pop at What's Pop'n Pop Shop, we took a trip to Dairy Queen, I can recommend don't try eating an ice cream cone and operating a scooter at the same time because it didn't end well."

The motion was passed unanimously to endorse the changes for year two.

Send your news tips, story ideas, pictures, and videos to news@discoverairdrie.com