Kerre Woodham: E-scooters, cycle lanes, and public demand

The Government's move to shift e-scooter users from the sidewalk to bike lanes is being hailed as a win for common sense. Shame it's not coming in before the Christmas party season. ACC stats for e-scooter injuries this year are close to surpassing $14 million. 

Now, I don't believe that's because e-scooters are inherently dangerous. They're very easy to ride, very stable. I am willing to bet a significant proportion of those injuries happened after 10:00 at night on a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or Saturday, when the rider was pissed as a parrot and there were three to a scooter, tooting their hooter. 

Putting e-scooter riders into cycle lanes isn't going to stop them falling off their perches, but it might protect innocent passers-by and pedestrians. National MP for Tukituki, Catherine Wedd, says the rules around where people were allowed to ride e-scooters were outdated and dangerous, and the government had work underway to change it.  

Flamingo Scooters co-creator Jackson Love told Mike Hosking that it clears up confusion. He says bike lanes are clearly lot safer than the road, and it also helps keep footpaths clear for pedestrians. And the cycling action spokesperson Patrick Morgan agreed, as he told Ryan Bridge on Early Edition this morning. 

PM: This is long overdue. It makes sense for this to happen. Pedestrians really don't want e-scooters on the footpath, and often our streets can be quite hostile for people. So, it makes sense to put e-scooters on bike lanes. But we're going to need a lot more bike lanes, aren't we? 

RB: How many more bike lanes do you reckon we need? 

PM: We don't need a bike lane on every street. No one's asking for that. What we need is bike lanes on busy streets where people want to go, so to get people to our schools, workplaces, shops. There's a there's a trend in modern cities for people to get around by bike, e-bike, and scooter. So, I think councils and the government need to restart building bike lanes to meet public demand. 

It would be interesting to know what that public demand is, given that cycle lanes are not swollen and congested. You do not see long, lengthy queues on cycle lanes. There are some that are better patronised than others. But there is clearly a heck of a lot more room for people on scooters, for people on bikes, for people on skateboards, for people on bloody horses to use the cycle lanes because they are not at capacity now. 

I love a cycle lane. I love cycling. But it's some cyclists I'm less keen on. They want cycle lanes and they want them in most places, and I would love a cycle lane from my home to work. So I could get to and from work over the bridge on a fine day. I want to be able to use my car if it's raining or the bus. But I'd love to be able to cycle safely without aggressive nasty drivers taking aim at me. 

But cyclists want cycle lanes and more of them, but they also want to be able to use the road when it suits them too. The man mules say they want to, they're way too fast to go into cycle lanes, mate. You should see the clicks I can get up to on my bike. They don't go into the cycle lanes because they're too fast and they say it's dangerous. So they need to be on the road and everybody needs to look out for them. 

And despite the fact that there's a beautiful cycle lane that's been built on Meola Road in Auckland, and you could probably substitute Meola Road for just about any road in any city around New Zealand. There's a beautiful cycle lane there, wide, safe, glorious. But my lovely producer Helen came to work quite discombobulated because she'd had to slow down to go behind a lady commuter on her electric bike who was adjacent to the cycle lane, in the middle of the road, pootling along, not quite at the same speed as the traffic, but and there was a yawning, vast, empty cycle lane right next to where the lady cyclist was. 

There are special bike lights to let cyclists know where it's safe to go and when they need to stop. Yesterday I was coming up Franklin Road in Auckland, again substitute any road in any city, and there's a lovely cycle lane there, and there were three cyclists on it from bottom to top, which is great. And the first cyclist got the green light, the green little cyclist, so through they went. That changed to red by the time the second cyclist got up. Did that deter them? Not a jot. 

They wove through the pedestrians like the pedestrians, who were on the pedestrian crossing, were oddly shaped obstacles in a fun obstacle course. Weaved around them, the little cyclist, and nobody died, nobody got knocked into. Clearly very good at weaving through pedestrians and off he went. 

I agree that the cycl

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Carrywood and Morning's podcast from News
Talks headb.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
The government's move to shift e scooter users from the
sidewalk to bike lanes is being hailed as a win
for common sense. Shame it's not coming in before the
Christmas party season. ACC's stats for escooter injuries this year
are close to surpassing fourteen million dollars. Now. I don't

(00:33):
believe that's because EA scooters are inherently dangerous. They're very
easy to ride, very stable. I am willing to bet
a significant proportion of those injuries happened after ten o'clock
at night on a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or Saturday, when
the rider was pissed as a parrot and there were
three to a scooter tooting their hooter. Putting E scooter

(00:56):
riders into cycle lanes isn't going to stop them falling
off their perches, but it might protect innocent passers by
and pedestrians. National MP for Tukie Tookie Catherine wed says
the rules around where people were allowed to write es
scooters were outdated and dangerous, and the government had work

(01:17):
underway to change it. Flamingo Scooters co creator Jackson Love
told Mike Cosking that it clears up confusion. He says
bike lanes are clearly lots safer than the road and
it also helps keep footpaths clear for pedestrians. And the
Cycling Action spokesperson Patrick Morgan agreed, as he told Ryan

(01:37):
Bridge on early edition this.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
Morning, this is long overdue. It makes sense for this
to happen. Pedestrians really don't want es scooters on the
footpath and off in our streets can be quite hostile
for people, so it makes sense to put es scooters
on bike lanes. But we're going to need a lot
more bike planes, aren't we How many more bike lanes
do you reckon we need? We don't need a bikeplane

(01:59):
on every street, No one's asking for that. What we
need is bike planes on busy streets where people want
to go to get people to our schools, workplaces, shops.
There's a trend in modern cities for people to get
around by bike, e bike and scooter. So I think
councils and the government need to restart building bike lanes

(02:21):
to meet public demand.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
Will be interesting to know what that public demand is,
given that it's cycle lanes are not swollen and congested.
You do not see long, lengthy queues on cycle lanes.
You know there are some that are better patronized than others,

(02:44):
but there is clearly a heck of a lot more
room for people on scooters, for people on bikes, for
people on skateboards, for people on bloody horses to use
the cycle lanes because they are not at capacity. Now,
I love a cycle lane. I love cycling, but it's

(03:05):
some cyclist I'm less keen on. They want cycle lanes,
and they want them in most places, and I would
love a side. I would love a cycle lane from
my home to work so I could get to and
from work over the bridge on a fine day. I
want to be able to use my car if it's raining,
or the bus, but I'd love to be able to

(03:27):
cycle safely without aggressive nasty drivers taking aim at me.
But cyclists want cycle lanes and more of them, but
they also want to be able to use the road
when it suits them too. The mammals say they want
to They were way too fast to go into cycle lanes. Mate.

(03:47):
You should see the clicks I can get up to
on my bike. They don't go into the cycle lanes
because they're too fast. And they say it's dangerous, so
they need to be on the road and everybody needs
to look out for them. And despite the fact that
there's a beautiful cycle lane that's been built on me
Meola Road in Auckland, and you could probably substitute me

(04:08):
al A road for just about any road in any
city around New Zealand, there's a beautiful cycle lane there, wide, safe, glorious.
But my lovely producer Helen came to work quite discombobulated
because she'd had to slow down to go behind a
lady commuter on her electric bike who was adjacent to

(04:29):
the cycle lane and the middle of the road poodling
along not quite at the same speed as the traffic,
and there was a yawning, vast empty cycle lane right
next to where the lady cyclist was. There are special
bike lights to let cyclists know where it's safe to
go and when they need to stop. Yesterday, I was

(04:51):
coming up Franklin Road in Auckland to gain substitute any
road in any city, and there's a lovely cycle lane
there and there were three cyclists on it from bottom
to top, which is great. And the first cyclist got
the green light, the green little cyclist, so through they went.
That changed to red by the time the second cyclist

(05:13):
got up. Did that deter them, not a jot. They
wove through the pedestrians like the pedestrians who were on
the pedestrian crossing. Like pedestrians were oddly shaped obstacles in
a fun obstacle course, weaved around them. The little cyclist
and nobody died, nobody got knocked into. Clearly very good

(05:35):
at weaving through pedestrians, and off he went. I agree
that the cycle lanes should be for anything that's motorized
foot paths that's in the name foot for people with
feet to walk on, not for scooters, not for bikes.

(05:56):
I am all for different forms of transport being incorporated
into everyday life. It makes no sense. I mean, you
see it all the time in the cities where people
have an appointment across town so they'll hop on ane scooter.
Makes so much more sense than taking forty five minutes
to walk or taking an uber, much more sense to

(06:19):
hop on a scooter, makes much more sense to hop
on a bike. If you've got a cycle lane that's
close by you, and there's some really well patronized ones
in Auckland that have just a god send for many people.
But there is a place absolutely for bikes, scooters, skateboards, cars, buses, ferries.

(06:44):
But is it too much to us that everyone stay
in their lane and follow the rules.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
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