URBANIAK: Nova Scotia should stop blocking village vehicles

New regulations under Nova Scotia’s long-awaited Traffic Safety Act recently came into force. Something was missing.

Municipalities still cannot green-light NEVs on designated slow roads. NEVs are neighbourhood electric vehicles; I call them village vehicles. They resemble golf carts, but they are built sturdier. They are often designed to be protected from the elements.

They are approved for sale by Transport Canada. But the provinces decide whether communities can actually green-light them on any public roadways.

In provinces where NEVs/village vehicles are allowed on some roads – like British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec – they are license-plated and insured. Drivers must be licensed like other drivers. British Columbia calls them neighbourhood zero-emission vehicles and allows them on roads with speed limits under 40 kilometres per hour. BC municipalities can choose to expand that to roads under 50 kilometres per hour.

In 2022 (and previously), the Municipality of Victoria County in Cape Breton asked for NEVs to be allowed within the Village of Baddeck as a convenient way to get between village attractions and between hotels, shops and village attractions.

In preparing this column, I reached out to the then warden of Victoria County, Bruce Morrison, who represented Baddeck on county council. He still strongly believes a pilot project, with signage, for designated roads in Baddeck (a concentrated, pedestrian-oriented community) is “manageable, safe and doable.” It would also be “clean and efficient.”

Morrison added that businesses would likely find village vehicles to be practical – a seasonal option within the village — for some visitors.

Even a resort operator wanting to send an employee a few blocks to the local hardware store for $50 worth of supplies might prefer to deploy an NEV in the summer, instead of a diesel vehicle, Morrison said, recalling feedback at the time.

These village vehicles have a built-in top speed of 40 kilometres per hour, as per Transport Canada regulations for low-speed vehicles. Traffic along Baddeck’s main street and waterfront doesn’t move any faster than that. These are pedestrian environments: If anything, seeing an NEV would reinforce that pleasant rhythm and atmosphere.

Nova Scotia’s Department of Public Works declined Victoria County’s request, citing safety reasons. True, NEVs don’t have the same crumple protection as SUVs and sedans, but neither do bicycles, motorcycles or ATVs.

Gary Andrea, spokesperson for Nova Scotia’s Department of Public Works, told me in an email that giving municipalities discretion to permit NEVs in designated areas “is not being considered at this time.” Meanwhile, Leanne MacEachen, CAO of Victoria County, advised that it has not come up recently.

That’s too bad, because regulations are becoming incongruous. ATVs are being allowed on more and more village and town roads in the province under the Road Trails Act.

That Act gives municipalities discretion. ATVs are fast, loud, usually gas-powered, polluting vehicles designed for off-road terrain. NEVs are clean, quiet, governor-capped (speed-limited) and built specifically for paved, low-speed environments. And yet NEVs are not permitted on any public streets in Nova Scotia.

It is much harder to enforce the rules of the road with a sub-set of delinquent ATV drivers than with NEV drivers.

As I was researching for a different column last year, the Cape Breton Regional Police essentially conceded to me that they had a problem with law-breaking ATV drivers simply taking off from police. That is not going to happen with a slow-moving village vehicle.

The electric village vehicles are easy to charge. They just need level 1 charging, which is a standard household 120-volt outlet. Two of them will often fit in one parking spot.

Although these are not actually golf carts, you may have seen golf carts (not officially authorized) running little errands on public roads and laneways in fishing villages where traffic is light. Powering a pick-up truck each time would seem excessive. One golf-cart driver stopped to chat with my son and me last week when we were walking near the wharf in Gabarus.

Allowing municipalities to permit village vehicles in designated slow areas reduces wear and tear on streets. More seniors would have a micro-mobility option during the warmer months for short errands. Furthermore, these vehicles tend to sell for about half the cost of standard vehicles.

It also aligns with the province’s climate change plan, which promises a “coordinated and collective effort” that makes “lives more affordable and strengthens our communities.”

An absolute, blanket ban on these village vehicles in Nova Scotia – with no municipal discretion — is poor public policy.

Political science professor Tom Urbaniak, director of the Tompkins Institute at Cape Breton University, recently released his latest book, Conscience and Community: A Citizen’s Reader. He can be reached at tom_urbaniak@cbu.ca .