Letter to the Editor in The Daily Examiner 13 February 2012:
Mobility speedsters
After the story in Saturday's paper I would like to make a plea to the riders of mobility scooters.
Please, before you cross Prince St from one of the vegetated kerb blisters, STOP!
Because of the height of the vegetation at these points and your low height, it is damn near impossible for a driver to see you.
I have witnessed and experienced several near disasters from scooter riders bolting out of these blisters and expecting to be immune from disaster.
One day someone will just not be able to stop in time and some poor driver will have to live with the consequences of having knocked a disabled/elderly person off their scooter.
Simple solution - just stop and look before you cross the road. It doesn't matter that there is a pedestrian crossing; you still have to enter it with caution. And technically, you are driving a vehicle, you are not a pedestrian.
So before we have a disaster on our hands - and remember there have already been 60 fatalities - use your common sense and don't just assume because you are on a pedestrian crossing that you have right of way.
And of course, all drivers should be approaching the crossing with due care as well.
But, given the speed that these scooters are capable of, sometimes it is just impossible to predict their approach.
If they are supposed to be designed for simply "mobility", why is it necessary for them to be capable of such speeds anyway?
From where I see it, it looks like they are being used as commuter vehicles, rather than mobility aids in a lot of cases.
Any vehicle capable of travelling at any faster than a swift walking pace (say 10 kph), should be regulated in some form, for the sake of all road users.
