Vancouver e-scooter crackdown leads to 1,300 warnings and tickets | Daily Hive

Lime e-scooter share station in the Grandview-Woodland neighbourhood. (Kenneth Chan)

Riding without a helmet was the most common violation during a month-long e-scooter safety campaign that had generated roughly 1,300 police warnings and tickets, as of Oct. 2.

The Vancouver Police Department (VPD) launched the initiative on Sept. 4 to coincide with students returning to school, with this enhanced targeted enforcement campaign ending on Oct. 4. The figures released by police reflect the campaign’s progress before its scheduled end.

Officers issued 753 warnings and 167 tickets for helmet violations, bringing that category alone to 920.

Riding on sidewalks accounted for at least 181 warnings and tickets, while carrying a second person on an e-scooter resulted in another 84. Police also issued at least 24 warnings and tickets involving riders younger than the minimum age of 16.

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“E-scooters are a great mode of transportation, but we want people to know the rules and get to their destination safely,” said VPD inspector Stephanie Willoughby.

“Not everyone is using them properly, so Vancouver Police officers are raising awareness about the rules and issuing tickets where necessary.”

Willoughby said the campaign followed a few serious incidents over the summer.

“Over the summer, we saw at least one person seriously injured, and sadly one fatality. We started the enforcement project to coincide with the start of the school year so we could help keep people safe,” she said.

Under the City of Vancouver’s rules, e-scooter riders must wear helmets, be at least 16 years old, and travel no faster than 25 km/h. Each e-scooter can carry only one person, and riders must dismount and walk their devices on sidewalks and through crosswalks.

Generally, e-scooter riders should use bike lanes wherever they are available. On streets with speed limits of 50 km/h or less and no bike lane, e-scooter riders generally must keep as far right as practical. On roads with higher speed limits, provincial guidance restricts e-scooters to bike lanes.

Falling under a provincial pilot project to test the public use of such micro-mobility devices, Vancouver’s municipal government first allowed the use of private e-scooters on select local streets, bike lanes, and pathways under municipal regulations established in 2021.

That later led to the City seeking a company to launch and operate a public e-scooter share system. Following a bidding process, Lime was selected at no cost to the municipal government, with the City also gaining a new revenue stream.

Lime provides helmets attached directly to each e-scooter device in Vancouver.

September 2026 marked Lime’s second anniversary of operating an e-scooter share service within Vancouver, which was the company’s first system using locking docking parking stations. Over that period, Lime has grown considerably in both ridership and its geographical coverage, especially after its expansion into Downtown Vancouver beginning in Summer 2025. During the 2026 FIFA World Cup period alone, the company recorded nearly 500,000 trips on its devices in Vancouver.

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