As promised last year, Vancouver-based HeyYa! Cart Rentals have arrived in Victoria.
The company was founded on the idea of expanding people’s notion of what micro-mobility could look like, in the form of street-legal, electric-powered golf carts.
Tasha Maynard, CEO of HeyYa! Cart Rentals told Victoria Buzz the idea for these street-legal golf carts came to her as she was doing the IRONMAN run down in Florida in November 2023.
“Climate change and electric cars was already on my mind,” Maynard explained when Victoria Buzz last spoke to her in August 2024.
“As I was doing the run, this is the last event of the day, it’s dark, you’re exhausted and there’s these groups of people on these golf carts going up and down the strip.”
She thought something like this could thrive in her hometown of Vancouver, so she brought the idea back and since that time, her business has taken off.
Now, she has brought them to Victoria where they have set up shop in the City of Victoria-owned View Street Parkade, at 743 View Street.
In the parkade’s front entrance vestibule, HeyYa! has an attendant where any licensed driver over the age of 21-years-old can rent a golf cart and hit the streets.
The carts have been outfitted with a speed boost that allows them to go up to 40 km/h, seat belts, headlights, daytime running lights, turn signals, windshield wipers, hazard lights, rear-and side-view mirrors and emergency brakes.
They are available as a four-seater, a six-seater or an eight-seater, and are all fully insured by ICBC as well as approved by Transport Canada.
“It’s basically just like renting a car in a city,” Maynard told Victoria Buzz while taking one of her carts for a drive around the streets of Victoria.
Customers, both local and those who are visiting the city, can rent them by simply watching a quick video, going over the boundaries and then hitting the streets.
Rentals must be taken out for a minimum of two hours, but for many of her clients back in Vancouver, Maynard says that two hours is never quite enough.
The four seater carts cost $26 per hour, the six-seater costs $35 per hour and the eight-seater costs $44 per hour.
“What we found in Vancouver is that people would take them and be like, ‘oh we just need two hours,’ and then I’d hear back from them like, ‘can we extend our rental, we’re having so much fun,’” Maynard explained.
As far as what streets the carts are permitted to be on, HeyYa! worked closely with the City to decide where would be in and out of bounds for the launch.
Currently, Vic West is mostly in-bounds, but the Bay Street Bridge is not included in the boundaries.
The northernmost boundary ends at Phillips Brewing; dips south to allow carters to drive along Yates, but not Johnson; and then curves northeast allowing Fort Street and Cadboro Bay Road to be driven all the way up to Willows Beach.
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Now that their office is set up at the View Street Parkade, HeyYa has decided to run an exclusive deal for Victoria locals, or those visiting during the first month they are open, ending on May 31st.
If customers are booking online or in person, the promo code “viclocals15” will get them 15% off their rental.
Maynard says that taking one of the carts out is the perfect little date night for locals and hopes people will take advantage of the deal.
While driving the streets of Victoria during the interview, several people were rolling down their windows, asking Maynard about the carts and how to rent them.
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