E-scooter safety drive reminds users not to risk riding without a helmet in Brampton

E-scooter operators are warning riders about the risks of not wearing a helmet ahead of a week-long safety initiative coming to Brampton.

A helmet is the most important piece of safety equipment you can use while riding one of the many e-scooters available for rental around Brampton and can help prevent serious injury in the event of a crash, e-scooter operator Neuron Mobility says.

And while only riders under the age of 18 are legally required to use a brain bucket while riding an e-scooter in Brampton, Neuron Safety Ambassadors will be out on city streets next week encouraging users to strap on their helmets.

“Although 99.99 (per cent) of all Neuron trips end safely and without incident; helmets are one of the simplest and most effective ways to prevent serious injury in the unlikely event of an accident,” Ankush Karwal, General Manager for Canada at Neuron Mobility said in a release.

The Safety Ambassadors will be at e-scooter hotspots across the city from Sept. 21 to Sept. 29 to remind users of the riding rules and promote helmet use. Neuron will also be releasing videos on social media and has committed $100,000 for rider education and incentives to reinforce the importance of helmets.

There’s also Neuron’s ScootSafe Academy which can teach riders the rules of the road through interactive quizzes, videos and games.

Brampton became the first city in the GTA to launch an e-scooter program in 2023 when it partnered with operators Neuron Mobility, Bird Canada and Scooty Mobility for the pilot program which brought 750 eclectic kick-style scooters to the city for short-term rentals.

The first year of the program saw 110,000 riders sign up and travel over 415,000 kilometres with over 200,000 trips taken. A report also found that seven out of every 10 Neuron e-scooter trips result in a purchase with a local business with an average purchase of $27 per trip.

The average trip on a Neuron e-scooter was around 2.1 kilometres and took 13.5 minutes. A survey of riders in Canada found that 45 per cent of Neuron trips replaced the use of a car.

E-scooter use have saved some 6,000 litres of gasoline and cut down on approximately 14 tons of carbon emissions in Brampton last year, the city says.