Time to move e-scooters off footpaths
by Dog And Lemon GuideThe decision to ban certain brands of e-scooter doesn’t mean the remaining e-scooters are safe, says the car review website dogandlemon.com.
Editor Clive Matthew-Wilson, who is an outspoken road safety campaigner, says e-scooters were effectively sneaked onto the nation’s footpaths without proper safety assessments.
“E-scooters offer nothing that biking and walking don’t offer. It’s hypocritical for the government to say it’s worried about obesity, yet allow short-trip technology that effectively replaces exercise.”
“It’s equally hypocritical to ban most bikes from footpaths on safety grounds, yet allow e-scooters.”
“It’s even more hypocritical that the Green Party promotes the precautionary principle, which states that a new product must be proven safe before it can be released into the environment. Yet, with the full support of the Green party, e-scooters were allowed onto footpaths without any real safety assessment.”
“The steady stream of accidents followed as night follows day, yet e-scooter promoters have not paid a cent towards treating the injuries caused by their scooters.”
“Changing the brand of e-scooters does not make them safe. Bike riders, pedestrians and e-scooter riders are effectively in competition with each other. They need to be separate. That’s why we have cycle lanes and footpaths.”
“You can’t have fast-moving e-scooters safely sharing space with slow-moving pedestrians. It’s a proven safety disaster, and changing the brands of e-scooters doesn’t alter this basic fact.”
“I’m not against e-scooters. However, they need to be entirely removed from footpaths. The promoters of these scooters can then pay the full costs of implementing e-scooters into our towns and cities.”
ends