judge recently ruled in favour of a B.C.<\/a> man who appealed a $568 fine he received for riding a Onewheel without insurance. Tickets for no insurance are the most widely used violation cited when electric skateboard riders get a ticket in B.C.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe City of Kelowna said that provincial regulations trump city bylaws, but riders can get a bylaw ticket for $35 on top of any fine from a police officer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harks said it’s a bit of a grey area. He was stopped by an officer once, but didn\u2019t receive a ticket and it hasn\u2019t stopped him from riding his board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was waiting at an intersection to cross the road. And then he pulled up behind me and told me that, you know, they’re not legal on the road. I wouldn’t be able to ride it and I’d have to carry it to where I was going,\u201d he said. \u201cIt’s been a bit of a deterrent, you know, I still kind of have to keep doing my own thing if I still want to keep riding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Ministry of Transportation said it\u2019s the rider\u2019s responsibility to make sure whatever they’re riding, whether it\u2019s an e-bike, e-scooter or electric skateboard, is road legal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSince only motorized devices authorized by the legislation may be driven on B.C. roads, people must know what\u2019s legal before choosing to buy or use a device. Even if a device is available for purchase, a person is responsible for ensuring that it is legal for use,\u201d the ministry said in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Several cities in B.C. have an e-scooter pilot program \u2014 including Kelowna, Vernon, Kamloops and Penticton \u2014 where people are allowed to ride electric kick scooters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Onewheels and other similar electric mobility devices are not part of the pilot program and are illegal to ride on the street. The ministry said that since the Motor Vehicle Act doesn\u2019t apply to private land or parks, and if a city allows for it, Onewheels can be ridden on trails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harks said it\u2019s the rider\u2019s job to make sure they are riding responsibly, even if they\u2019re riding illegally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt’s really about keeping that in mind as the rider to be respectful to your community, to be responsible for yourself, your devices, your surroundings, just like if you’re driving a car,\u201d he said. \u201cI think using discretion is a wise tool. There are people who are riding irresponsibly … They probably should have a talking to at the very least. And that’s across Onewheels, e-scooters, e-skates, e-bikes, you know, kind of the whole cohort.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Onewheels typically have a top speed of 30 km\/h, which is pretty close to a Lime e-scooter\u2019s top speed of 25km\/h. The legal situation is the same for Onewheels as it is for electric unicycles, the ones where the rider stands facing forward with the single wheel between their feet, although some electric unicycles can go 70 km\/h or faster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Police officers enforce dangerous riding on e-scooters, e-bikes and Onewheels on a case-by-case basis, Harks said, so some people will ride safely and others will use the vehicles more dangerously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI get the impression that enforcing the law for the Onewheel is pretty similar to the way the cops deal with dangerous riding on scooters, whether it’s two people riding one or speeding or whatever, where it’s up to the officer in that situation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cAs far as I’m aware, there are a few select officers that see this as an issue that they really take an interest in.” <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":547,"featured_media":4883,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"guid":"","source":"","byline":"","published":"","updated":"","_infotelid":"","_prepressid":"","_multisite_post_sync":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1285,492,493],"tags":[],"region":[206,207,208,209],"class_list":["post-4882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-local","category-topnews","region-kamloops","region-kelowna","region-penticton","region-vernon"],"blocksy_meta":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inwheels\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/inwheels-hd-mediaitemid110514-7991.jpg","post_modified":"2025-09-12T06:00:00","post_modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T13:00:00","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inwheels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inwheels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inwheels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inwheels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/547"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inwheels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inwheels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inwheels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inwheels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inwheels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inwheels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4882"},{"taxonomy":"region","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.infonews.ca\/inwheels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/region?post=4882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}