Make footpaths safe again – axe e-scooter trial
committee member of the Oriental Bay Residents’ Association
Council sponsored e-scooters arrived on Wellington’s streets last June; 800 of them on our footpaths for an 18-month trial without any regulation – not even speed restrictions. Since then our footpaths have become intimidating; especially for the frail, the elderly, the hearing- and sight-impaired, and parents with toddlers.
The shared pathway along Oriental Bay has become a free-for-all for cyclists, e-scooters and e-bikes. E-scooters can reach up to 45kmh; pity the poor pedestrians.
It’s time to cancel its trial, remove these motorised vehicles from our footpaths, and introduce safety rules and sensible regulations: compulsory helmets, speed limits, and no access to footpaths.
Accident Compensation Corporation statistics paint a grim picture. In the five months to March last year, ACC paid out nearly $2.9 million in injury claims across New Zealand as a direct consequence of e-scooter and scooter accidents. Those figures had almost doubled by last month.
In January 2019, a New Zealand Transport Agency official warned that there were ‘‘significant’’ risks if e-scooters shared footpaths and roads. NZTA subsequently admitted, after complaints to Parliament’s regulations review select committee, that the process to allow e-scooters on footpaths had been rushed at the request of e-scooter operator Lime.
Disability advocate Jane Carrigan complained to the committee that she felt the process had been completed hastily. ‘‘The issue of licensing e-scooters in the manner they did, it is an error in law,’’ she said. She also claimed NZTA ‘‘has adopted Lime’s business model of go in hard, make the changes and do a big mea culpa afterwards’’.
At a recent Wellington City Council meeting, deputy mayor Sarah Free advised walkers to continue walking steadfastly onwards whenever they felt threatened. And that seems to be the council’s position, so inner-city and suburban footpaths are becoming increasingly unsafe and threatening because of the swift and silent e-scooter.
According to Free’s fellow councillor Nicola Young, ‘‘Wellington is an outlier compared to other cities. In London, e-scooters are forbidden on roads and footpaths, with heavy penalties imposed for infringements.’’
In San Francisco and many other cities, e-scooter riders are also subjected to heavy fines if they use footpaths. In Singapore, e-scooters have been banned after deaths and serious injuries. Sydney will not allow e-scooters on the grounds of safety, and in Los Angeles a class action suit has been filed after nine people were seriously injured by e-scooters.
Wellington City Council’s sustainable transport hierarchy has pedestrians as the highest priority, yet its rushed and illconsidered eagerness to allow e-scooters on to our footpaths has jeopardised the safety of those it claims to value most, with further hazards as e-scooters are increasingly dumped in scattered heaps on our footpaths.
Our consumer society is creating an increasing burden on the planet, calling into question its very survival. We must, therefore, try to minimise our carbon footprint. But should this mean increasing threats to the personal safety of the majority in the interests of a minority?
The Oriental Bay Residents’ Association does not want to ban e-scooters. We are just asking for responsible regulation to make our footpaths safe again. We have asked – so far, in vain – for the council to reinstate the white demarcation line that used to separate pedestrians from wheel traffic on the shared path. We want Oriental Bay, once again, to be the haven it has been for nearly 200 years.