Numbers show users in the city traveled almost 69,000 kilometers since the e-scooters rolled out back in May, which is almost twice around the world. Medicine Hat also has the distinction of averaging the longest trip length in Canada, with almost four kilometers traveled per ride.
Data also shows one rider took more than 130 trips from July to October, which is an average of a trip a day for the season. The longest single ride in the city measured 43 kilometers.
“This person is a really enthusiastic Bird Canada rider, we love to see it,” Schafer says.
Bird Canada says the novelty and reliability played a factor in the scooter’s popularity, and Schafer adds the program provides benefits to quality of life as well.
“The perspective you have on your surroundings, the city you live in, the community you live in, I find is different behind a bicycle or a scooter than it is in a car, even within a bus or a subway,” he says. “You just get a different perspective on your community, you can interact with your community in interesting ways when you’re on a bicycle or scooter that you can’t simply do behind the wheel of a car, and I think that has positive externalities for communities.”
READ MORE: Bird e-scooters taking flight in Medicine Hat
The city is still in the process of evaluating the results of the pilot program, but Schafer is optimistic the scooters will be back on city streets next spring.
