Should e-bike collisions be covered by public auto insurance? This Montrealer thinks so

Luc Allard was cycling home from his downtown Montreal office in late September when someone riding an electric Bixi unexpectedly swerved into him, causing a powerful head-on collision that snapped his ankle.

“It’s tough to get around,” said Allard, who had to undergo surgery and is still working from home with his leg in an aircast, more than a month later.

“I was scared to go down the stairs at first, so I stayed in my room for the first three weeks.”

His wife has been forced to work from home as well, taking care of him, their kids and their house as he can’t do much except stay in bed all day.

He said his work provides insurance and he has been able to take paid medical leave, but he wonders what would have happened if he’d had less security.

“There’s a lot of people who don’t have private insurance at work and get into these accidents,” he said.

Quebec’s automobile insurance board (SAAQ), which covers all expenses related to collisions involving vehicles, isn’t responsible for covering the costs associated with this type of debilitating accident that was made far worse by the fact that he was hit by a grown man on a 30-kilogram, power-assisted bicycle, Allard said.

And he isn’t alone in this concern.

As e-scooters and e-bikes, also known as micromobility devices, increase in popularity, so has the lobbying effort to tighten rules on their use.

Should Quebec start treating heavy e-bikes differently?

A Montreal cyclist who broke his ankle in a collision with an electric Bixi says people should be more careful around bike paths, and the SAAQ should cover more kinds of collisions.

Bicycle advocacy group pushes for regulation

First of all, Quebec doesn’t even have its own clear definition of an e-bike or e-scooter, meaning it relies on federal guidelines to determine which type needs a licence plate, said Vélo Québec’s Magali Bebronne.

That means an electric scooter, for example, might appear to have power-assisted pedals so it can be ridden on a bike path with no registration or plate, but in fact, the pedals aren’t actually functional, she said, describing it as a legal loophole that manufacturers use to their advantage.

This is a big problem, because micromobility devices are a lot heavier than their people-powered counterparts, she said.

Bixis, the shared bikes designed to be workhorses, are already heavy — as any rider can attest — weighing in at 18 kilograms.

The electric Bixi weighs about 30 kilograms, in another class altogether than the average bicycle, which weighs between eight and 13 kilograms.

Then there’s the speed. The electric Bixi can go up to 32 km/h.

Bebronne mentioned that certain European countries enforce a 25 km/h speed limit on power-assisted bicycles. Even though a mere seven km/h difference might appear negligible, it can diminish the severity of an impact by 64 percent, she said.

While an experienced cyclist on a non-assisted bike can pedal much faster, capping the limit at 25 km/h would still be a few points speedier than the average cyclist’s commuting speed, she said.

“People don’t feel as comfortable having to share the path with these vehicles that are faster,” said Bebronne.

Vélo Québec wants e-scooters to be banned from bike paths and be covered by the SAAQ if there’s a crash, she said.

Bike paths need upgrading, group says

Beyond that, Vélo Québec has spent the last year lobbying for all road crashes to be covered, regardless of whether a licensed vehicle is involved.

Car drivers are covered by the SAAQ if they are injured removing snow from their car, she said, but a pedestrian hit by a cyclist is not covered even if everybody involved in the collision is a licensed car owner who pays the annual fees, contributing to the SAAQ’s coffers.

While electric modes of transport are becoming an increasing issue, Vélo Québec is not opposed to power-assisted bicycles as they encourage people, even those with reduced mobility, to exercise and, in some cases, leave their car at home during their daily commute, she said.

But the bike path network in Montreal needs to be upgraded to accommodate the boom in cycling’s popularity as well as the increased use of these e-devices, she said.

“Bidirectional bike paths are a standard from the ’80s,” said Bebronne, but with the volume of bike path use today, combined with such a variety of speeds, this configuration is particularly dangerous.

Allard was using the two-way bike path on de Maisonneuve Boulevard West when he was hit near the Girouard Avenue intersection in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce.

‘My head hit the ground a couple times’

He was almost home, he said, going uphill, when the e-cyclist, coming downhill, swerved into him for no apparent reason on a “very narrow” section of the bike path.

“It was just head over heels, tumbling,” he said. “My head hit the ground a couple of times. Good thing I had a helmet.”

He knew immediately his ankle was broken. His foot was hanging off his leg like a rag doll’s, he said.

The man on the Bixi was unscathed, though he waited for police and paramedics to arrive on the scene, Allard said. The man was issued a ticket for not wearing a helmet, which is required on e-bikes, he said.

But Allard was dealt a blow more costly than any ticket — his family’s routine has been flipped upside down and his active lifestyle will be on hold for several months, he said.

Montreal’s police service, the SPVM, has been keeping track of serious injuries involving electric bikes and scooters ever since Quebec announced electric scooters were allowed on bike paths and roads this summer.

So, between July 20 and Oct. 14, there were two serious injuries involving e-bikes and three involving e-scooters, a spokesperson for the SPVM said in a statement.

“The approach and intervention strategies of the SPVM will evolve based on the findings observed in the field by our police officers,” the statement said.

In a statement, Bixi said it does not track collisions involving its bicycles.

“Bixi promotes bicycle safety rules and the use of helmets in all its communications,” Bixi said, and those rules are promoted throughout the subscription process and whenever a user takes a bike.

Montreal also pushing for rule upgrade

Sophie Mauzerolle, the city’s executive committee member in charge of mobility and transportation, said in a statement that the collision Allard experienced is deplorable.

“Once again, we are urging all road users to exercise extra caution when using electric or motorized transport options,” she says, and even if Bixis have a speed cap, “users must always be vigilant and adhere to the Highway Safety Code.”

In partnership with Vélo Québec, the Plante administration has been urging Quebec’s Ministry of Transportation and Sustainable Mobility (MTMD) to better regulate micromobility devices, Mauzerolle said.

“In a large city like Montreal, where a significant number of users and various means of transportation coexist, the leniencies provided in the Highway Safety Code pose risks to the safety of the most vulnerable users,” she said.

At the same time, she adds, Montreal is continuing its effort to adapt bike paths to current demand.

CBC asked the MTMD for comment but was directed to the SAAQ.

According to SAAQ spokesperson Gino Desrosiers, the SAAQ only compensates for injuries if the accident involves a covered moving vehicle, following the Automobile Insurance Act.

The SAAQ is currently addressing concerns regarding the regulation of new types of assisted bicycles and is collaborating with the MTMD to revise the definition of assisted bicycles to eliminate ambiguities, she said.

“Work is underway on issues related to public road access rules, registration and driving permits for these types of bicycles,” said Desrosiers.