Scooters make a mockery of council rules and NZTA
Ionce had to change the angle ever so slightly on the corner of a fence that surrounded a pool. It was totally pedantic and stuffy from a power hungry and uptight inspector at the Auckland Council.
I could see three other hazards much worse than this in front of his eyes but they didn’t matter as the rule book declared them OK for some unknown reason.
It was clear to me common sense and judging what’s in front of you was never something this council or other councils knew much about. Rules and sticking to them mattered. Or else!
But I did what I had to to get the required consent, despite steam furiously being released from my ears. It was crucial to public safety that I made this $200 angle change to the fence railing, according to Auckland Council officials.
But hang on. This wasn’t a community pool with public access, this was a simple run-of-themill backyard fibreglass-mould pool of average size and length with a common fence around it put in by a seasoned, reputable, law-abiding bloke and his well-established company.
Didn’t matter, said the plod carrying a clipboard and a major chip on his shoulder.
He wanted change and got it as security and safety matter around pools. I actually agreed with him then and still do now. It’s just that the change made it easier to scale the fence and jump into the pool, not harder.
Funny thing is, three years later a different and new inspector returned to check my fence and $128 and five minutes later he gave it the green light despite this fence being questionable in two places.
I guess you have to shake it to actually see but, hey, it was a Friday afternoon and it looked OK from a distance.
Anyway, the platform I erected up high for the kids to jump from has always been the thing I thought they’d have issues with, but that would require someone to walk 10 metres and turn their head sharply. To date that hasn’t occurred. I might deconstruct it now I’ve written about it.
But here’s my point. If this little angle in a pool fence caused angst for officials then how on earth have various local body councils around the country or transport agencies allowed the various electric scooter companies to take over city and suburban streets, so that people now mix it with huge trucks and fast cars at breakneck speed without any protections and not even a simple helmet.
Don’t get me wrong. These scooters are fun and great for climate change probably and they save you turning on the car, with all those nasty fumes polluting the atmosphere, or paying through the nose for a cab or Uber ride.
But talk about asleep at the wheel. Was Auckland Council on holiday when the scooter companies applied to take over our streets? Where were our transport officials?
Maybe they were out making it hard to attend a public event or revenue-gathering or handing out tickets for your front tyre being 13 centimetres over the allowed parking space and touching a yellow line.
In an overbearing, rules-based society, which in some places has banned bullrush and lolly scrambles, how on earth were these scooters ever allowed to just appear on streets with little fanfare, fewer rules, no public education campaign or warnings, no helmets, nothing.
It makes a mockery of councils and their million rules and regulations. They have a regulation for almost anything but when it came to riding scooters on city streets, no problem, what could possibly go wrong?
I have witnessed helmet-less nutters going full noise, narrowly avoiding a massive container truck down by Auckland’s port. And that’s not just a one-off.
These scooters truly found a loophole in councils’ rule books and only now are officials scrambling to sort it out. Lime has been kicked out of Auckland and another company in Wellington has just scrapped hundreds of scooters, after six months, because they’ve reached the end of their life. I kid you not.
The whole exercise makes a mockery of new tough health and safety rules in the workplace and at schools and other public places, which we have been told matter greatly because, well, our lives could depend on them.
School principals have banned kids from climbing trees. Crosscountry events have been put on hold, high-vis vests and road cones rule every corner. As for every school trip, sign here, do this course, wear these shoes, this hat, don’t walk there, and bring tonnes of items you don’t need just in case the very worst happens.
Yet jump on a fast electric scooter with no helmet or other protections and the rules couldn’t be more different.
Arghhh, don’t worry about the road rules because you ride on the footpaths anyway and if you ride on streets, well, that’s cool and doesn’t matter – just watch for cars that kill and people on cellphones and massive trucks and once all that is understood go for it, she’ll be right.
Was Auckland Council on holiday when the scooter companies applied to take over our streets?
No, she hasn’t been all right. And council officials and publicly elected officials look like hypocritical morons. And, as it turns out with the demise of Lime scooters in Auckland, the council never had the power or authority in the first place.
But they should have cried out for help. The NZ Transport Agency should have led the debate but that would be leadership and heavens, let’s not show too much of that. It will come up with new regulations in the next six months to address issues around speed, helmets and where e-scooters can be used.
One person has been killed and more than 2000 riders injured when riding the popular scooters, which were launched in Auckland in October last year. Toben John Hunt, 23, died after an accident on a Lime scooter in downtown Auckland in September.
Let’s get this right for his family. And yes, of course the rule book matters but let’s not be dictated to by it. Use common sense and have fun but please don’t ban these scooters as a result of this underwhelming and poor start.