I don’t often agree with Harold Scruby from the Pedestrian Council of Australia who often is highly critical of the driving population and never finds fault with his trusted pedestrians. However, I did very much agree with his article in Tuesday’s Daily Telegraph headed “e-madness must end before we are e-limited.”

Harold rightly taking the N.S.W. Government to task for choosing to throw open our footpaths and roads to high speed, unregistered, uninsured e-scooters and fat bikes. Allowing anyone 16 and over to ride e-scooters on 50km/hour roads as well as shared paths is surely a recipe for disaster, with no training, no license, no registration, and no insurance. As he pointed out, the day that the Government unveiled its ‘safety focused recommendations a pedestrian in Victoria was killed by a souped-up fat-tyre e-bike doing 90 km/hour.

Scruby makes the point that back in 2020 the N.S.W. Government’s own expert advisory committee including Transport for N.S.W, Police, N.R.M.A, Ambulance, Councils, and disability advocates unanimously recommended a minimum age license of 17, plus the need for a helmet, insurance, number plates, a 10km/hour limit on shared paths and a total ban on footpaths.

He rightly points out that Fat bikes are out of control on the Northern Beaches. Children ride two to three up, helmetless, on vehicles modified in five minutes into 60km/hour unregistered and uninsured motor bikes yet the Police advice the cannot fine under 16-year-olds. On pedestrians he maintains the law is clear “On shared paths riders must give way to pedestrians at all times, even if that means of coming to a stop.”

A person walking across a streetDescription automatically generated

But when it comes to pedestrians, Harold Scruby remains one eyed – suggesting they don’t need education. They need protection. Certainly, they need

protection, especially young children, the elderly and the disabled. However, pedestrian behaviour from my observation is at an all-time low and I’ve long advocated that walking onto a pedestrian crossing while talking and texting should be an offence.

Interestingly, Harold Scruby at the head of his Tuesday story made the point that the road toll in N.S.W was 18 per cent above the same time last year. In reality, to last Monday night, there had been 147 fatalities, 18 more than the same time last year, an increase of 13.9 per cent.