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When it comes to e-scooters, it should be “helmets for all,” says the Windsor-Essex Road Safety Working Group.

The issue will be coming to a head Monday, when a proposed pilot project to allow “electric kick scooters” or e-scooters goes to council for approval. Provincial regulations require riders to be at least 16 years old and wear helmets until age 18. An administration report, however, recommends making helmets mandatory for all riders. But last month, council’s environment, transportation and public safety standing committee voted to delete that recommendation and stick with the provincial requirement.

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“I think starting off with a blanket ‘wear a helmet at all ages’ without substantiation … I wasn’t comfortable with that,” Ward 2 Coun. Fabio Costante said Wednesday of his motion — approved by the standing committee — to recommend deleting the all-ages helmet rule.

He said a helmet-for-all rule lacks consistency because adults on bikes don’t have to wear helmets. Also, he doesn’t like “criminalizing a bunch of people” who just want to go out for a scooter ride. And he questions if a helmet rule would discourage people from riding scooters and opting instead for more dangerous transportation modes like cars. There’s also the question of enforcement.