Let’s make space on roads for parking
It is disappointing to see Justin “prospective Lansdown Conservative ward councillor” Dreager want to see the council “crackdown” on e-scooters as other councils have.
Other councils are not cracking down on the legal e-scooters but the illegal ones and rightly so. I suspect he is fully aware of that and twisted the truth to make a political statement. Is this the way we want our Tory candidates to behave?
Rather than praise and celebrate the expansion across Bath after a year of having an e-scooter trial, that, in all honesty, was just a tourist attraction, he chose to go down the moral panic route.
I am unsurprised that Justin is unable to see that a £8.75 Hop-onhop off monthly ticket for residents on Job Seekers Allowance, Universal Credit, or Income Support (£25 for NHS workers) is a good thing that could really help these residents living in the poorest areas of our city during a cost of living crisis.
He could have chosen to criticise the failure of this council to include Twerton and the University in the expansion.
Where is his criticism of Cllr Tim Ball and Sarah Moore for their refusal to allow the Hop-on-hopoff e-scooters in Twerton that would have benefited so many of their residents? (Discount does not apply for Long Term Hire e-scooters.)
Given the local Conservatives’ stance against Liveable Neighbourhoods, which have been shown to make walking/wheeling, cycling, AND driving 3-4 times safer without impacting main road casualty rates; their principled objection to 20mph speed limits, as shown by their actions when in power last time to force a 30mph speed limit on the Lansdown Endsleigh estate including a new school that has thankfully been reversed by this administration; I can understand why they are not calling for the obvious solution to e-scooters being stored on pavements.
Reallocate on-street parking spaces to e-scooter parking.
E-scooters are legally only allowed to be used on roads. So park them on roads. Not the pavement. And that is a political decision taken by this administration you can’t even blame Cllr Sarah Warren for. It’s very much down to the Cabinet Member For Transport, Cllr Manda Rigby.
We need a city that puts people first and cars last. A city where everyone no matter what age or ability can get around safely and independently, be it walking/wheeling, cycling, or scooting.
Where public buses are prioritised but where driving is always possible but not the easiest way to get around.
Where there is a shared mobility hub on every street corner where a resident can grab a e-car, e-cargobike, e-bike, e-scooter, or even charge up their e-car.
A city where you don’t need to “own” a car but can have access to one should you need it.
Where HGVS drop their goods off at the edge of the city and e-cargobikes deliver goods across the city.
That, whether Justin likes it or not, is a city that is acting on climate
change. That is the vision that has been set out in the council’s “Journey To Net Zero: Reducing the environmental impact of transport in Bath” document.
E-scooters are part of that solution and do not need to be “cracked down” on. They need to celebrated and any issues fixed.
We need the council to stop using pavements as a convenient parking area for e-scooters which has a big negative impact on those in wheelchairs and mobility scooters, and repurpose on-street parking for their storage. Keep them on the roads where they belong.
Adam Reynolds
Walk Ride Bath