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Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1406705
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2021 BCBUSINESS 27 HOW WE GET AROUND IN B.C. KEEPS CHANGING FOR THE GREENER—WITH HELP FROM INNOVATIVE LOCAL COMPANIES THAT ARE SHOWING THE WORLD A BETTER WAY, TOO b y P A L L A V I R A O , N I C K R O C K E L + S A P H I Y A Z E R R O U K Mobility is looking different these days. Everywhere you turn, it seems, there's a new mode of transport whizzing past you, whether it's an electric car on the street or an e-scooter on the sidewalk. But where are things headed? "It's an interesting time in transportation," says Alex Bigazzi, an associ- ate professor at UBC with a joint appointment in the department of civil engineering and the school of community and regional planning. "We're seeing a lot more creativity from the private sector than we've seen in the past." Bigazzi's research includes active travel (walking and bicycling), micromobility—think small personal-use vehicles ranking from bikes to electric scooters—and emerging human-electric hybrid vehicles such as e-bikes. "The trends in micromobility started to appear five-plus years ago, coming largely out of tech companies in Silicon Valley and the U.S.," he says. "A few European cities have been faster adopters of this than most Canadian cities." When it comes to micromobility, Canada has been slower on the uptake, partly thanks to safety concerns about e-scooters. For example, Toronto banned the futuristic two-wheelers. Climate change is arguably a major driver of mobility innovation, as highlighted by the global shift to electric vehicles. The City of Vancou- ver, which declared a climate emergency in 2019, approved its Climate Emergency Action Plan last year. One of the plan's goals is to have zero- emission vehicles account for 50 percent of the kilometres driven on local roads by 2030. In Vancouver, access to charging stations has been an obstacle for elec- tric cars, with most units located in private residential buildings. But a policy passed this June requires developers to install charging infrastruc- ture in 45 percent of the parking stalls for new non-residential properties, as well as in all car-share stalls. PLACES GOING WHEELS IN MOTION Vancouver's Urban Machina specializes in electric scooters t h e F U T U R E o f M O B I L I T Y