Get scooting on rules for safety’s sake
Bob Holderness-Roddam is worried about the introduction of e-scooters
WHAT needs to happen before e-scooters are unleashed in Tasmania?
Around the time of the recent state election, Premier Peter Gutwein foreshadowed regulations to permit electronic scooters to be used on footpaths. While any steps to reduce traffic congestion in our cities should be encouraged, the introduction of e-scooters requires careful consideration. We need policies and regulations regarding their use.
Last May I wrote to Mr Gutwein, outlining my concerns regarding the safety of pedestrians around these devices. I raised the following issues with the Premier:
FOOTPATH standards vary considerably. Some are very narrow, and their surfaces can be pretty rough, too. TASMANIA’S population is ageing. Many seniors have issues with their balance, and some use a stick or crutches to assist their mobility.
power and speed of electric vehicles of all types is constantly increasing.
Many are operated by young people who have little regard for their own and other peoples’ safety.
I asked him to ensure the people tasked with developing policies and legislation to consider the above points. I also asked for a copy of draft legislation when it was ready for presentation to parliament.
In late July I received a letter from Infrastructure and Transport Minister Michael Ferguson. He advised that the Department of State Growth was “developing various options to amend Tasmania’s current legislation and/or regulations that would safely permit escooters and other types of PMDs (Personal Mobility Devices) to be used on public roads and/or paths”. He had asked the department to review the issues I had raised.
Since then I have further investigated the situation regarding e-scooters in Australia and overseas. As yet, there have not been many studies, largely because e-scooters really only started to become widely available in 2017. In brief, there are three modes of use. These are as private vehicles, or for rental. Escooter rentals are in two forms, either ‘docked’ or ‘undocked’. The docked rentals require a scooter to be returned to a recharging location. The undocked rental system allows the scooters to be picked up or left anywhere for the next user to pick up. There is an initial cost, say a dollar, and then a further charge perminute. These scooters are basically intended for short journeys, say from a car park or bus stop to a workplace.
The few available studies into e-scooters reveal that safety is a major concern, for both riders and pedestrians. I will concentrate upon the issues regarding pedestrian safety.
Austin Badeau and colleagues published a paper in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine which analysed records from Salt Lake City. The number of injuries to both riders and pedestrians jumped from eight in 2017 to 50 in 2018, following their introduction as a rental option. Maya Simian-Tov and colleagues analysed the situation in Israel between 2013 and 2015, finding a six-fold increase in accidents during that period. There were 795 injuries requiring hospital treatment, with 8 per cent being pedestrians. Of these pedestrians, 42 per cent were children, and 30 per cent were aged 60 and over.
The UK’s Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) concluded that ‘e-scooters have features that are inherently unsafe’.
I’ll leave the last word to Anindya Maiti from the University of Oklahoma and colleagues from the University of Texas: ‘Before making any policy decisions or implementing new regulations on e-scooter services, their impact on pedestrian safety needs to be thoroughly studied in an empirical and data-driven manner.’ Enough said!