By Eric Doherty
I was recently in Amsterdam where wheelchairs and mobility scooters are a common part of the traffic flow on bike and roll routes. This is also starting to happen in many other cities. Netherland’s laws welcome this, and laws are changing in other jurisdictions.
This shift is puncturing the misleading narrative used by those who weaponize disability in favour of maintaining automobile dominance.
Disability Rights Washington (DRW) found that almost a quarter of that state’s population are non-drivers. The non-driving rate in Canada is likely similar. Anna Zivarts, director of DRW’s Disability Mobility Initiative and author of the book When Driving Is Not an Option, points out in Mother Jones that disabled people are less likely to drive than nondisabled people, “and more likely to get around [by] walking and rolling and taking transit.”
In my city, Victoria, British Columbia, people often imply that older seniors and people with disabilities can’t use bike and roll lanes. For example, a letter to our daily paper asserts that “we have a large population of folk who can’t bike or walk far… When something (flying machines? magic carpets?) becomes available, that will be the time” to reduce automobile use.
Magic carpets are rare, but plenty of people are using power wheelchairs and mobility scooters (with three and four wheels) on bike and roll routes in Victoria.
A key reason that municipalities and cycling groups don’t counter this message by showing wheelchairs and mobility scooters rolling on protected bike and roll lanes is that the B.C. legislation has not yet been updated. (Claiming that wheelchair and mobility scooter use on bike and roll routes is illegal in B.C. would be an overstatement, as the province’s human rights legislation could trump the traffic rules if the question makes it to court or the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal.)
Oda Al-Anizi, who uses a wheelchair with a power drive, was recently interviewed by the CBC about the Ontario government’s plan to tear out bike and roll lanes in Toronto.
“I was shocked when I heard this because these lanes give me a lot of freedom and I see a lot of people using them,” said Al-Anizi. “I feel like my safety is not being taken into consideration as a citizen, a person with a disability… It makes me feel dispensable, like they don’t care.”
The CBC interview did not mention that Quebec is the only Canadian province that has updated its legislation to allow wheelchairs and mobility scooters on bike and roll routes and low-speed roads.
I interviewed Dr Brett Petzer, a cycling infrastructure consultant from the Netherlands, at the B.C. Active Transport Summit in June. He explained that wheelchair and mobility scooter users have “made the coalition for good cycling infrastructure far more powerful, because it is not just cycling infrastructure.”
Petzer asserts that having wheelchairs and mobility scooters on bike and roll routes has created a broader, more diverse base of supporters for improved bike and roll routes. Because of this, “you have to design the cycling infrastructure to a level higher than what a fit, able-bodied cyclist needs,” he added.
The rest of Europe is following in the Netherland’s footsteps.
When Seville, Spain, started building its network of protected bike and roll lanes over a decade ago, it designed the lanes for wheelchairs and painted wheelchair symbols on them.
Italy updated its legislation in 2022, and Leggo reported that Roberto Romeo, president of Anglat (Associazione Nazionale Guida Legislazioni Andicappati Trasporti), called the move a “victory for civilization.” Romeo said, “Now a person with a disability, who moves on a manual wheelchair, electric wheelchair or on a mobility scooter, will be able to move around more easily and experience the opportunities and beauty of our cities.”
In France, the Council of Paris (city council) requested that the national government make it explicit that wheelchairs and mobility scooters are allowed on bike routes and low speed roads in 2023. The national government agreed in time for the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympic Games, apparently by just re-interpreting the existing legislation.
The U.K. has a very strange set of rules for wheelchair and mobility scooter use, apparently allowing them on on-road bike routes and protected bike lanes, but not on others. Groups including Wheels for Wellbeing are campaigning to see this rectified.
Multiple groups in my home city, which is also the provincial capital, asked the City of Victoria and the Capital Regional District to do the same as Paris. And in spring 2024, both the city and region voted to ask the provincial government to allow wheelchairs and mobility scooters on bike and roll routes. Since then, there has been a provincial election, and a new Minister of Transportation and Transit has been appointed.
During the election, a group I work with, Greater Victoria Acting Together, asked candidates if they “support having the provincial government clarify, without delay, that people using wheelchairs and mobility scooters have the right to use all ages and abilities bike and roll routes?” Most of those elected from the BC NDP gave vaguely supportive answers. But now, Dana Lajeunesse, NDP MLA for Juan de Fuca-Malahat and Parliamentary Secretary for Accessibility, who uses a wheelchair with a power drive, has responded clearly in favour. The one BC Green Party candidate elected in the region, Rob Botterell, now MLA for Saanich North and The Islands, also responded with an enthusiastic yes.
B.C.’s largest cycling organizations, along with many other groups, are calling on the province to welcome people who use wheelchairs and mobility scooters on bike and roll routes.
It seems likely that B,C. will do this soon. Will other provinces follow suit?
Originally published in Canada’s National Observer on February 11th 2025: https://www.nationalobserver.com/2025/01/30/opinion/bike-lanes-quebec-wheelchairs-mobility-scooters
