E-scooter public safety concerns are highest in Mississauga. CEO of e-bike, e-scooter company pushes to focus on education over pausing partnership with the City.
Stewart Lyons, CEO of Bird Canada, one of the companies that operates Mississauga’s shared e-bike and e-scooter program, told city council that out of all the 250 cities around the world where Bird supplies e-bikes and e-scooters, “the only areas where we have these public safety conversations still is Canada and specifically, Toronto and Mississauga.”
Bird Canada and Lime Canada, the other company that operates Mississauga’s shared micro mobility rental program, came to council in early April to convince councillors not to pause or ban the program but instead to work with them to address issues through “technology and education.”
E-bikes and e-scooters have been a hot topic in Mississauga for the past several years with the Mayor at one point accusing e-scooters riders of “driving like lunatics.” In late February Councillor Dipika Damerla tabled a motion asking council to call on the Province to “licence and register e-bikes and e-scooters.” Her motion was defeated. Deputy Mayor and Councillor Matt Mahoney then tabled his motion in April asking council for “an indefinite suspension of the City’s e-scooter permissions…until such time that the notable safety and policing factors can be satisfactorily addressed.” That motion also failed.
Both Bird Canada and Lime Canada insist their micro-mobility devices are safe and have only become safer over time. Bird Canada wrote in their submission to council that last year there were only 0.56 “safety incidents” per 100,000km travelled. Lime Canada says 99.99% of trips on their devices end without a “reported incident.”
Peel police, however, support pausing the micro-mobility program, citing an “increase in incidents involving these devices, including collisions and rider injuries.” Deputy Chief Mark Andrews submitted a letter to council in support of Councillor Mahoney’s motion, outlining the police force’s concerns about current legislation, municipal by-laws, and regulatory gaps, public safety data, education and enforcement strategies, and clear standards for device classification, usage and compliance.
According to a report shared with the Road Safety Committee in January, Credit Valley Hospital and Mississauga Hospital data showed 738 e-scooter related emergency visits between 2023 and 2025. While there were significantly more bicycle-related injuries, for example, in July 2025, there were 135 bicycle related ER visits compared with 69 e-scooter ER related visits, e-scooter injuries are on the rise in general and growing particularly among youth under 18 years old.
Bird and Lime are on track to launch the micro-mobility program again this spring, possibly with new features. Lyons told council that they could “tomorrow” implement “ID verification” to ensure that there are no underage riders or make helmets mandatory with “helmet selfies.”
City staff, however, say there could be issues related to privacy with some of these new technologies and council would have to approve of any changes.
WHAT DO YOU THINK? HAVE YOUR SAY!
MPulse readers have concerns about e-bikes and e-scooters in Mississauga. Should we ban them, like some want to do? Or is this about individual choice? Let us know at info@mpulse.ca. We may run your comments in an upcoming issue.
