Road rule
In among the concerns raised about e-scooter behaviour on footpaths, I’m surprised that noone has yet mentioned the fact that we already have a Road User Rule (11.1) that requires wheeled footpath users to ‘‘not operate the device at a speed that constitutes a hazard to other footpath users’’.
The rule is deliberately subjective because the context will vary quite a lot between (say) a wide empty path and a narrow busy one. But I’m fairly certain that riding an e-scooter at top speed along a footpath with lots of people or limited sight distance would not comply with this rule.
It would be helpful if the e-scooter providers would highlight some of this information in their terms and conditions, rather than some generic US-centric requirements. And perhaps the police could do a little ‘‘preemptive persuasion’’ of some hot spots to get the message out there?
Glen Koorey, Huntsbury