When shared e-scooter companies rolled into Canada in 2018, they hoped a few small pilots would quickly result in a country full of people zipping around on two wheels.

Since then, the companies which allow people to rent scooters through an app and park them along city streets have been banned from Montreal and Toronto and have barely made a dent in Atlantic Canada.

But recent wins in Western Canada and impending decisions in several Ontario municipalities could soon provide e-scooter companies the opportunities they need to establish themselves in the market.

鈥淭he wave is going to continue,鈥� said Jonathan Hopkins, director of strategic development and government relations in Canada for e-scooter company Lime.

鈥淲e鈥檒l see how big it is and how far it goes and how fast it spread, but there鈥檚 not going to be a retrenchment against this. E-scooters are here to stay in Canada.鈥�

Lime, which currently operates in Edmonton, Victoria and Ottawa and held a 2020 pilot in Calgary, was among the first to attempt a shared model in 2018, where consumers locate and unlock e-scooters with an app and pick up or drop off on Canadian streets.

The San Francisco company entered the market with a pilot limited to Waterloo, Ont.鈥檚 private trails and university campuses.

Users had to be at least 18 years old with a driver鈥檚 licence and were charged a $1 unlocking fee and 30 cents per minute. The pilot ended in 2019 and Lime did not seek a renewal, but Hopkins said the company wants to return whenever Waterloo allows e-scooters region-wide.

During that trial period, Lime competitors Bird, Jump, Spin and Roll were expanding in Canada and Montreal decided to give Lime and Bird a shot with a summer 2019 pilot.

A city report found e-scooters in the Montreal pilot were only parked in designated zones 20 per cent of the time and police issued 333 tickets to riders, including 324 for not wearing a helmet.

Then, there was the Lime e-scooter spotted in the Lachine Canal 鈥� reminiscent of viral incidents in the U.S. and Asia, where scooters were lit on fire, tossed off buildings, snapped in half and even defecated on.

Montreal banned shared e-scooters in 2020, but Bird thinks the pilot would have gone differently with a greater number of parking zones in more convenient locations and a system locking e-scooters to permitted municipal infrastructure.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a use case for scooters in Montreal and I鈥檓 optimistic that the shared e-scooter program will be back (but) differently constituted,鈥� saidChris Schafer, Bird Canada鈥檚 vice-president of government affairs.

Hopkins agreed.

鈥淚t鈥檚 definitely not a lost cause,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 only a matter of time. I think (e-scooters) will be back soon.鈥�

Raktim Mitra, an associate professor with Ryerson University鈥檚 school of urban and regional planning, doesn鈥檛 think Montreal鈥檚 experience will keep e-scooter brands with deep pockets out of the rest of the country, but he said they have their work cut out for them.

While many debuted in the U.S. by flooding the market and then seeking municipal partners, Canada鈥檚 transportation ministry has tighter controls, he said.

That means provinces have to permit e-scooter pilots and then individual municipalities must study and vote on whether to allow companies to operate there.

Provincial approval doesn鈥檛 always spur municipalities to move ahead. Toronto, for example, decided in May to opt out of a provincial pilot permitting e-scooter trials because of safety concerns.

Schafer, however, still thinks there鈥檚 鈥減ositive momentum,鈥� especially when people try e-scooters elsewhere.

鈥淭here鈥檚 always that question of when are they coming here?鈥� said Schafer. 鈥淚 hear that in Toronto and in other cities where they may not exist yet.鈥�

But Mitra said Canada鈥檚 e-scooter market is a question mark. While the devices have become more popular than bikes in some U.S. cities, Canadians may use them because they鈥檙e 鈥渁 cool new thing鈥� or when they鈥檙e travelling, but not adopt them regularly.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 have a clear idea of what gap in the transportation landscape these e-scooters would fill,鈥� Mitra said.

Several provinces are on their way to determining that. Bird has permits in Kelowna, B.C., Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa and Windsor, Ont.and Schafer saidHamilton, Brampton and Mississauga, Ont. are considering e-scooters.

Calgary, which ran a pilot between 2019 and 2020, recently decided to let e-scooters stay and Edmonton is entering its third trial season.

B.C. said earlier this year that it will soon welcome the devices to Kelowna, Vernon, West Vancouver and North Vancouver and Ottawa will launch e-scooters this summer with Bird, Lime and Neuron Mobility.

Singapore鈥檚 Neuron Mobility wasn鈥檛 dissuaded by the rough ride e-scooters experienced elsewhere because chief executive Zachary Wang thinks it鈥檚 common with emerging technology.

鈥淚t does take some time, some effort to try to make this new type of infrastructure be well integrated in the city,鈥� he said, after calling the Montreal ban 鈥渦nfortunate.鈥�

He hopes Neuron will avoid quibbles because its e-scooters come with helmets, a button to call emergency services and topple detection capabilities that alert the company if they fall over.

Mitra will be watching how the pilot and others go, hoping they give him clues about the future.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of demand and I can see there鈥檚 a lot of potential for it to become an important transportation option,鈥� he said.

鈥淏ut at the same time, it鈥檚 hard to really understand if it鈥檚 here to stay or just a fad that will slowly disappear from the market in the next five to 10 years.鈥�

鈥� Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press