Scooter encounter

I have had another encounter with a Lime scooter, and this one showed me clearly the folly of allowing these motorised vehicles to share our footpaths and shared pathways.

An approaching scooter going flat out appeared from nowhere, being visible from only about 6-7 metres away. At a speed of 27 kmh it would travel 7.5 metres in a second, leaving me less than one second to react.

I did react, yelling at the rider as he passed to slow down, but he was going so fast that it took him at least 10 metres to give me ‘the bird’.

The problem really is that these vehicles should not be on our footpaths, particularly as many are not in a suitable condition for anything but pedestrians. Where this happened the footpath is overgrown to at least half its width with a hedge, obscuring visibility. There are many other sites in a similar or even worse condition.

If this situation is to continue, the CCC needs to issue notices to all owners to cut vegetation back, so allowing full use of the width of footpaths. Also, these vehicles should be governed back to a sensible speed, maybe 10 kmh or so. Ideally they should be banned from using footpaths and shared pathways.

Ray Jackson, Shirley the taxpayer with mounting ACC claims.

Craig Davey, Merivale (Abridged)

Anna White, Lyttelton