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Should e-scooters be allowed in cycle lanes? (www.rnz.co.nz)

submitted 15 hours ago by Dave@lemmy.nz to c/politics@lemmy.nz

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The title is from the article but doesn't really cover the breadth of changes proposed. The key parts:

The government is proposing to make it legal to ride e-scooters in cycle lanes. It is part of its work to "fix the basics" in the New Zealand transport system, with consultation opening today on two packages for rule changes.

In the first package, the government is proposing to:

Allow children up to age 12 (inclusive) to ride their bikes on footpaths, helping keep younger riders safer and reflecting common practice;

Introduce a mandatory passing gap of between one and 1.5 metres, depending on the speed limit, to give motorists clearer guidance when passing cyclists and horse riders;

Allow e-scooters to use cycle lanes;

Require drivers travelling under 60 kilometres per hour to give way to buses pulling out from bus stops;

Clarify signage rules so councils can better manage berm parking.

The second package relating to heavy vehicles proposes:

Some permit requirements would be removed so rental operators can move empty high productivity motor vehicle truck and trailer combinations between depots and customers without unnecessary delays;

Driver licence settings would be updated so Class 1 licence holders can drive zero-emissions vehicles with a gross laden weight up to 7500 kilograms, and Class 2 licence holders can drive electric buses with more than two axles with a gross laden weight up to 22,000kg;

Signage requirements for load pilot vehicles would be made more practical;

Overseas heavy vehicle licence holders would be able to convert their licences either by sitting tests or completing approved courses.

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[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 1 points 12 hours ago

This was actually a concern I had when I read this. e-scooters potentially travel much slower than bikes.

Let's pretend we live in a good society where we have bike lanes everywhere. So we have three speeds of traffic. Pedestrian speed, bike speed, car speed.

Now we're trying to add a new one, e-scooter speed. Do you put them on the footpath where they are too fast and could flatten or kill someone, on the road where they are too slow and might get killed by a car, or in the bike lane where they might be traveling 10-20kph slower than the bikes.

It feels like the bike lane is the right place. Yes, bikes will occasionally come up against slower e-scooter traffic, but that happens to cars behind trucks and pedestrians behind 3-across groups with no respect for other pedestrians.

The alternative seems to be to create scooter lanes. But perhaps a better idea is that when the volume becomes a problem in certain areas, we create two-lane bike lanes to allow faster traffic to pass slower traffic.