Scooters on a power kick

Way back when I went to primary school, which now seems like just a few hundred years after the last ice age, a couple of the kids had scooters and would go to school on them.

Way back when I went to primary school, which now seems like just a few hundred years after the last ice age, a couple of the kids had scooters and would go to school on them.

The rest of us either walked or rode a very modest one-gear bicycle.

Only the kids whose parents actually owned a car had one of those flash ones with a Sturmey-Archer three-speed “gearbox”.

I do recall there being a scooter at home which dad had picked up secondhand, and it was a novelty we all occasionally scooted about with.

Today, it pleases me to see the kids scooting along because they are getting a very vital thing — exercise.

Anything which demands the use of human activity to create propulsion has got to be a good thing.

Kids pushing and propelling themselves in their young years are building good muscle tissue and that is the best possible foundation for later years.

It’s like running in a car. Do it right and the chassis and engine should be pretty sound in later years.

Not sure about electric engines though . . . I sense eventual burn-out, but then I was born on high octane fumes (burned racing fuel is not a smell it is an aroma) so my electric vision is slightly blurred.

I mean, if we’re all-electric in 20 years how are we going to produce enough of the stuff to keep everyone lit, warmed and mobile?

Just build a nuclear plant or three I guess.

And so, as the planet prepares to embrace the electric age anything propelled by this energy system has become white hot in commercial terms, and the charge (excuse the pun) toward an all-electric landscape is sort of being carried out with the sort of technological urgency which drove the development of computers.

They have outpaced our ability to keep them tamed and we’ve all tasted the frustrating results.

And don’t mention cyber crime, scams and bullying — other branches this whole i-age introduced.

Righto then, time to flick the ‘on’ switch of the latest sensation to take to the streets.

E-scooters have begun appearing in their hundreds on the streets of Auckland and Christchurch for people to hire to get around on.There are plans to bring in hundreds more.

Given they were introduced only a month ago and there have been more than 65 ACC claims for injuries as a result of people coming off them, I would say that by Christmas our ACC levies will probably have been doubled to deal with their victims.

There have been broken teeth, broken bones, serious lacerations and bruising.

No surprise really, given they are currently allowed to be used on footpaths, without helmets and are capable of up to 27km/h.

These things are silent and relatively fast, so they possess more than an ample amount of collision potential.

To me, on the whole, they are pointless. If you want to get from A to B in a city why not walk or hire a bicycle. Something that embraces physical activity.

Crikey, if these things take over the way computers did, then in 20 years the human leg will have shrunk and the bodily girths trebled.

They do provide valuable transportation assistance for people who may otherwise not be able to get around too ably and that is most agreeable.

It’s the fit and healthy and “look at me” brigade who embrace these runabout toys who bewilder me.

If you are going to have a large scooter, use leg propulsion or fit a small engine and get it registered for road use.

Oh, and despite the pace they can generate they do not have to be used in cycleways. Shifting them off the footpaths would mean regulatory changes, and any speed-limit issues would require the NZ Transport Agency to change the law.

Yep, bring such things in and try to iron out the problems afterwards.

Pack the e-scooters up and send them back to California where they came from, then go for a walk.