Electric scooters have quickly become a common way to get around Canadian cities. They are convenient, relatively inexpensive and increasingly available through both private ownership and shared rental programs.
But the law governing them has not developed nearly as quickly.
Insurance legislation still relies on concepts such as “automobile,” “motor vehicle,” “occupant” and “pedestrian.” Those definitions can have significant consequences when someone riding an e-scooter is seriously injured or causes an accident.
The result is a complicated patchwork. Whether an e-scooter rider has insurance coverage can depend on where the accident happened, whether another automobile was involved, what type of scooter was being ridden, whether the rider has automobile or home insurance and even the technical specifications of the scooter.
There are really three separate questions that every e-scooter rider should consider: What happens if I injure someone else? What happens if I fall and injure myself? And what happens if a car hits me?
Before answering those questions, however, there is an even more basic issue.
Is it legal to ride an e-scooter?
There is no single Canadian answer. E-scooter regulation varies considerably between provinces and, in some cases, between municipalities.
Ontario
Ontario currently permits electric kick-scooters through a provincial pilot project, extended in 2024 and now running until November 27, 2029. That does not mean e-scooters can automatically be ridden everywhere in the province.
Municipalities determine whether and where e-scooters may be used within their jurisdiction. The provincial regulation provides that an e-scooter cannot be operated on a highway, sidewalk, trail, path, walkway or other specified public area under municipal jurisdiction unless its operation is permitted by municipal bylaw.
To qualify as an electric kick-scooter under the provincial pilot, the device must also satisfy technical requirements, including an electric motor of no more than 500 watts and a maximum speed of 24 km/h.
Interestingly, a qualifying e-scooter is expressly deemed not to be a “motor vehicle” for purposes of Ontario’s Highway Traffic Act.
That illustrates one of the central problems surrounding e-scooters: the legal classification of the device can change depending on the legislation being considered.
The municipal opt-in requirement matters in practice, not just on paper. Toronto, for example, has not joined Ontario’s e-scooter pilot, meaning privately owned e-scooters cannot legally be operated on Toronto roads, sidewalks, bike lanes or trails. Other Ontario municipalities have opted into the provincial framework. Riders therefore need to check the local rules rather than assuming the provincial pilot makes e-scooters legal everywhere in Ontario.
British Columbia
British Columbia also operates an Electric Kick Scooter Pilot Project.
The current four-year pilot, established under the Electric Kick Scooter Pilot Project Regulation, runs from April 5, 2024 to April 4, 2028. E-scooters may be operated on authorized roads and other areas within participating communities, subject to provincial rules and any additional restrictions imposed locally.
They are not simply authorized on every public road throughout British Columbia.
Among other requirements, riders must be at least 16 years old.
Quebec
Quebec has taken a somewhat broader approach.
Its pilot project covers “motorized personal mobility devices,” a category that includes electric scooters.
Qualifying devices can generally be operated on roads with speed limits of 50 km/h or less and on bikeways located along those roads, subject to the provincial rules and any local prohibitions.
The maximum permitted device speed is 25 km/h. Riders must be at least 14 years old and must wear a helmet.
Alberta
Alberta presents a different situation.
The province does not have the same type of broad framework authorizing privately owned e-scooters on public roads. Municipal shared-scooter programs can operate under specific provincial and municipal authorization, but that does not necessarily mean privately owned scooters can be operated in the same places.
This distinction became particularly important in a recent Alberta insurance decision, Le Prieur v. Aviva Insurance Company of Canada.
What happens if you injure someone while riding an e-scooter?
Suppose an e-scooter rider collides with a pedestrian and causes a serious injury, or damages someone’s property.
The first question is not about accident benefits. It is about third-party liability insurance.
A rider should not assume that an automobile insurance policy will protect them simply because the accident occurred on a roadway.
A homeowner’s or tenant’s insurance policy may provide personal liability coverage that responds to an accident involving an e-scooter. But coverage should never be assumed. Policies can contain exclusions relating to motorized vehicles, and both the exclusions and exceptions can vary between insurers and policies.
Anyone regularly using a privately owned e-scooter should therefore contact their insurer and ask a very specific question: Does my personal liability insurance cover me if I injure someone or damage property while operating this particular e-scooter?
Shared scooters create another potential insurance gap. Riders should not assume that renting from a major operator automatically means they are insured. Municipalities may require rental companies to carry substantial commercial liability insurance, but that coverage may protect the operator and municipality rather than the individual rider. Some operators provide separate rider insurance in certain markets, including personal-accident or third-party liability coverage, while others do not clearly promise such coverage. Riders should therefore check the operator’s current insurance terms rather than assuming that insurance is included with the rental.
What happens if you simply fall off an e-scooter?
A solo accident is very different from being struck by a car.
If someone loses control of an e-scooter, falls and suffers a fracture or head injury, there generally is not an automobile insurer to turn to simply because the person was injured.
The rider may have other sources of protection. These could include extended health benefits, short-term or long-term disability insurance, workplace benefits or other private insurance.
But those are different from automobile accident benefits.
Quebec provides a particularly clear example. Its public automobile insurance system distinguishes between an accident involving a moving automobile and an accident involving only a motorized personal mobility device. A solo fall or collision with certain non-automobile objects or users generally does not bring the accident within the public automobile insurance plan.
What happens if a car hits an e-scooter rider?
This is where the insurance analysis becomes considerably more complicated.
When an automobile strikes an e-scooter rider, provincial automobile accident-benefit legislation may become engaged.
But that does not necessarily mean an e-scooter rider will receive exactly the same benefits that people traditionally associate with being a pedestrian struck by a car.
Ontario and Alberta provide two important examples.
Ontario’s July 2026 accident-benefit changes
Ontario significantly changed its Statutory Accident Benefits Schedule for automobile policies entered into or renewed on or after July 1, 2026.
Medical, rehabilitation and attendant-care benefits remain part of the mandatory accident-benefits system. But income replacement, non-earner and caregiver benefits became optional.
There is another important change.
Those optional benefits apply only to specified categories of people connected to the policy, including the named insured, the named insured’s spouse, dependants and people specified in the policy as drivers.
Consider a person riding an e-scooter who is struck by a stranger’s car.
Assuming the collision otherwise qualifies under Ontario’s accident-benefits regime, the injured rider may still have access to mandatory medical, rehabilitation and attendant-care benefits.
But the fact that the driver who struck the rider purchased optional income-replacement coverage does not automatically mean the injured e-scooter rider gets the benefit of that coverage.
The rider’s own insurance situation becomes extremely important. Does the rider have their own automobile policy? Do they qualify under a spouse’s or other applicable policy? Was the optional income-replacement benefit purchased?
For someone who does not own a car and does not otherwise qualify under a policy carrying the optional benefits, there can be a significant protection gap.
That matters because one of the greatest financial consequences of a serious injury can be the inability to work.
Someone earning $80,000 a year who suffers a brain injury, spinal injury or serious fracture could be unable to work for months or even years. The resulting loss of income can be devastating.
That is why Ontario’s decision to make income-replacement benefits optional deserves particular attention from consumers.
It is also important not to overstate the July 1 changes. It would be incorrect to say that everyone in Ontario simply “lost” income-replacement benefits on that date. If a policy renews on or after July 1, 2026, the benefits that existed immediately before the change are deemed to continue automatically, in the same amounts, unless the named insured and the insurer agree in writing to decline or change them. The real exposure sits with new policies entered into on or after July 1, where these benefits are not automatic and must be purchased.
It is equally important not to assume that an at-fault driver’s own optional coverage helps an injured e-scooter rider. Access to those benefits runs through the rider’s own connection to a policy — their own coverage, or one under which they qualify as a spouse or dependant — not through what the driver happened to purchase.
The important message is that consumers should now understand what optional accident benefits they actually have.
Alberta and Le Prieur v. Aviva
A 2026 Alberta decision illustrates a different potential insurance gap.
In Le Prieur v. Aviva Insurance Company of Canada, 2026 ABKB 452, an individual riding a privately owned e-scooter was involved in a collision with a minivan.
The insurance dispute centred on an unusual question: Was the e-scooter itself an “automobile” under Alberta’s Insurance Act?
The Alberta Court of King’s Bench concluded that the e-scooter fell within the statutory definition because it was self-propelled.
That conclusion had a surprising consequence.
The rider was treated as an “occupant of an automobile” and was therefore excluded from the Section B accident benefits he was seeking from the minivan’s insurer.
The paradox is significant. The e-scooter was treated as an automobile for purposes of excluding the rider from those benefits even though it was not something the rider could simply register and insure through the conventional automobile insurance system.
The decision demonstrates the difficulty of applying statutory definitions developed around conventional automobiles to rapidly evolving forms of personal transportation.
It should also be described carefully. Le Prieur is a particular Alberta court decision interpreting Alberta legislation. It should not automatically be treated as establishing the result for every e-scooter accident across Canada.
Does fault matter?
It depends on which part of the insurance system is being considered.
Accident benefits are fundamentally intended to operate without requiring an injured person to first prove that somebody else caused the accident. Eligibility nevertheless depends on satisfying the requirements of the applicable provincial legislation.
A lawsuit is different.
If a motorist negligently strikes an e-scooter rider, the rider may have a claim against the driver. Fault becomes central to that claim.
The rider’s own conduct can also matter. If the rider was operating the scooter illegally, disregarding traffic rules or otherwise contributed to the collision, contributory negligence may reduce the amount recoverable.
But fault and insurance coverage are separate questions.
A person can be completely innocent of causing an accident and still encounter an insurance-coverage problem because of how the legislation defines the vehicle, the rider or the available benefit.
Le Prieur illustrates that distinction particularly well.
What about British Columbia and Quebec?
Both provinces demonstrate why it is dangerous to assume that the result in one province applies throughout Canada.
British Columbia operates under its own ICBC Enhanced Care insurance system, which provides care and recovery benefits to B.C. residents injured in crashes regardless of responsibility, including drivers, passengers, motorcycle riders, pedestrians, cyclists and users of micromobility devices such as e-scooters. Quebec has a public automobile insurance regime administered by the SAAQ.
Quebec expressly addresses motorized personal mobility devices in its public guidance. Where an e-scooter rider is injured without a moving automobile covered by the public plan being involved, the public automobile insurance regime generally does not apply. When a covered moving automobile is involved, the analysis changes.
British Columbia likewise has to be considered under its own statutory and ICBC framework.
An Alberta court’s interpretation of the word “automobile” therefore does not determine what happens in Ontario, British Columbia or Quebec.
E-scooter injuries are increasing
These insurance questions are becoming increasingly important because e-scooter injuries are rising.
Recent Canadian Institute for Health Information data reported approximately 837 e-scooter-related hospitalizations across Canada between April 2025 and March 2026, compared with 601 during the previous year — an increase of roughly 40 per cent.
The increase involving children is particularly concerning. Hospitalizations involving children aged 15 and younger reportedly increased from 54 to 150.
As e-scooter use continues to expand, serious injuries are likely to generate more questions about who pays for medical and rehabilitation needs, lost income and liability claims.
What should e-scooter riders do?
There are several practical steps riders can take before an accident occurs.
First, anyone who owns or regularly rides an e-scooter should contact their homeowner’s or tenant’s insurer and specifically ask whether their personal-liability coverage applies while operating their particular scooter. The answer should not be assumed.
Second, Ontario automobile policyholders should review the optional accident benefits they have purchased, particularly income-replacement coverage.
Third, riders should check the rules in the municipality and province where they intend to operate the scooter. A device being readily available for purchase does not necessarily mean that it can legally be operated on every public road.
Finally, riders should not assume that being legally permitted to operate an e-scooter means they are comprehensively insured while doing so.
The law is still catching up
E-scooters illustrate a broader challenge facing insurance and transportation law.
Traffic legislation determines whether and where someone may ride the device. Automobile insurance legislation determines whether an accident falls within a statutory benefits regime. Private insurance contracts determine whether the rider has liability or other coverage.
Those systems were not necessarily designed together.
Technology has moved faster than insurance law, and some of the definitions have not caught up.
Consumers should be able to know before getting on an e-scooter whether they are legally permitted to ride it, whether they are insured if they injure someone else, and what benefits will be available if they themselves suffer a serious injury.
They should not have to wait until after a life-changing accident — and potentially litigate the meaning of the word “automobile” — to find out.
If You’ve Been Injured in an E-Scooter Accident
E-scooter accidents can raise complicated questions involving accident benefits, liability insurance and personal injury claims. The answer may depend on where the collision occurred, how the e-scooter is classified under the applicable legislation and what insurance policies are available.
Kotak Law represents seriously injured people in personal injury, accident benefits and disability insurance claims. If you’ve been injured in an e-scooter accident and are unsure what insurance coverage or benefits may be available, contact Kotak Law for a consultation.
About the Author
Nainesh Kotak
Founder of Kotak Personal Injury Law
Canadian Long-Term Disability Lawyer
Nainesh Kotak is the founder of Kotak Personal Injury Law and a leading Canadian long-term disability lawyer recognized by the Canadian Lexpert Directory. Called to the Bar in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia, he has more than 30 years of legal experience and represents individuals in disability insurance disputes involving mental health conditions, chronic pain, cancer and other serious illnesses and injuries. Nainesh is Vice President of the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association and a former Chair of OTLA’s Long Term Disability Section. He is also a frequent legal commentator in Canadian media.
