Nova ScotiaA Halifax Regional Municipality pilot project that allows people to rent e-scooters and e-bikes saw 118,246 rides during its first six months, but data on injuries riders have sustained is far less specific, though that will soon change.Research will be led by IWK and involve emergency departments in the cityRichard Woodbury · CBC News · Posted: Nov 30, 2025 5:00 AM EST | Last Updated: 2 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 4 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.A designated parking area for e-scooters and e-bikes is seen next to Citadel Hill on Brunswick Street in Halifax. Almost 90 per cent of the rides during the first six months of the pilot project were for e-scooters. (Andrew Lam/CBC)A Halifax Regional Municipality pilot project that allows people to rent e-scooters and e-bikes saw 118,246 rides during its first six months, but data on injuries riders have sustained is far less specific — for now.At a recent Halifax active transportation advisory committee meeting, Halifax’s project manager of shared micromobility, Brittney MacLean, acknowledged this.”We’re hoping that at some point we’ll be able to gather more of that data in through, whether it be through the hospital, emergency rooms or … ambulance and paramedic data,” she said.”I don’t have information right now, but I know that the municipality has been very interested in that and Nova Scotia Health has been a close partner in trying to sort out that information.”MacLean was unavailable for an interview prior to publication of this story.People cross Elgin Street on e-scooters in Ottawa on June 25, 2023. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)Nova Scotia Health told CBC News that emergency department visits aren’t tracked by cause. “We are more focused on the injury itself, and less about what may have caused it,” the health authority said in a statement.Dr. Kirstin Weerdenburg, a trauma team leader at the IWK children’s hospital in Halifax, has closely watched the rise in popularity of e-scooters.”You see them all over the city, sometimes just laying on the sidewalk, and people riding around in them, mostly without helmets,” she said.While the devices are equipped with helmets, not all riders choose to use them.At the IWK, where patients are admitted up until their 16th birthday, Weerdenburg has some observations about the kinds of injuries she sees from e-scooter accidents.”I’d say the majority of the kids that I’m seeing are not wearing helmets,” she said. “And so they have a head injury, concussion or more significant ones with bleeding around the brain.”Dr. Kirstin Weerdenburg will be part of a research effort to gather more emergency room data about e-scooter and e-bike injuries in the Halifax area. (Daniel Jardine/CBC)Weerdenburg said the hospital collects injury data as part of a national pediatric emergency department database. And since Halifax introduced its micromobility pilot program, staff at the children’s hospital are asking more questions about whether the devices belong to the patients or if they’ve been rented.To rent one of the devices, people are supposed to be at least 16 years of age.”Because of the rental age limit, I think we’re not seeing as many with the rentals, unless somebody that’s older, [such as] a parent, gets them for them,” said Weerdenburg.Data shows that e-bikes are far less popular than e-scooters when it comes to Halifax’s micromobility pilot. (CBC)According to data released by the city, between May 15 when the pilot was launched and Nov. 5, there were 118,246 rides for the micromobility project, with most (104,406) coming from e-scooters.To understand more about how common injuries from e-scooters and e-bikes are, Weerdenburg said the IWK is planning to work with other emergency departments in the city to collect injury data for children and adults. She said the aim is for the research to begin next summer.Weerdenburg said having more data would help to develop ideas for injury prevention.She said the city has been very co-operative and interested in understanding what research has found about micromobility projects in other jurisdictions.Injury research from other citiesA 2025 paper regarding e-scooter use that appeared in the Canadian Journal of Surgery looked at emergency department admissions in Edmonton. Looking at 759 incidents, “most patients had multiple injuries (62 per cent), with fractures (32 per cent) and head injuries (17 per cent) being common. Helmet use was infrequent (two per cent) and concurrent substance use was prevalent (26 per cent).”A similar study in Calgary found that e-scooter injuries represented 15 per cent of transportation-related injuries in local emergency departments. For every 1,400 e-scooter trips, there was one emergency department visit.MORE TOP STORIESABOUT THE AUTHORRichard Woodbury is a journalist with CBC Nova Scotia’s digital team. He can be reached at richard.woodbury@cbc.ca.
Research to track injuries stemming from e-scooter, e-bike use in Halifax
