A NSW Government trial focusing on electric scooters has seen Dubbo council look at dipping its toes in the e-scooter market.
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The Transport for NSW (TfNSW) program - called the NSW E-scooter Shared Scheme Trial - comes in response to the growing popularity of e-scooters and the need to safely manage their use, the Minister for Infrastructure, Cities and Active Transport Rob Stokes announced the trial will enable a trial of e-scooter shared schemes and is expected to run for 12 months.
Mayor Mathew Dickerson said while he is eager to take part in the trial, there are many more steps to take before we see electric scooters on Dubbo roads, if at all. He said any trial would more than likely be contained to the Tracker Riley pathway in Dubbo and would firstly be contingent on feedback from the public.
"I'm a big fan of public consultation... But it would be silly for us to go now and say 'Hey, do you want to be part of this trial?' Because we don't even know whether being a part of it we're wasting everyone's time, even asking the question of the community. And to actually find out whether we can be part of the trial, the government has not said yes to us at this stage," Cr Dickerson said.
"Why Tracker Riley? Well firstly, there are no cars out there. So the risk of someone being injured is dramatically less on shared pathways and they're limited in speed to 10 kilometers an hour.
"I use Tracker Riley, I love it. And there are people out there that I know that run faster than 10 kilometers an hour on Tracker Riley. Definitely [there are] people on push bikes going faster than 10 kilometers an hour. So the risk of injury to someone very low..."
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NSW Minister for Infrastructure, Cities and Active Transport Rob Stokes told the Daily Liberal that it was time that e-scooters were made safer amid their booming popularity.
"E-scooters could be particularly useful in regional areas where there aren't the diversity of transport options that you find in inner cities. They could prove helpful to those living on the fringes of regional centres, shift workers and tourists," he said.
"Dubbo City Council has seen the future committing to and innovating great active transport infrastructure which provides a great opportunity for technology such as e-scooters to be used safely and to connect the city and tourism assets such as Taronga Western Plains Zoo.
Cr Dickerson agreed that e-scooters could become part of a tourism strategy.
"Getting people into Dubbo staying in Dubbo for longer and then saying, 'okay, you've got this extra thing to do, go and get on an e-scooter and ride around Tracker Riley', fantastic. I would be very keen as well to link up with our visitor information center... you've also got that linkage to the zoo."
Adriana-Simona Mihaita, Senior Lecturer and lead of Future Mobility Lab at the University of Technology in Sydney said that vehicles like e-scooters will become increasingly more important as cities transition to more sustainable ways of living.
"Changing transport modes represents an adaptation to ongoing changing travel needs, with a vision towards more sustainable cities/urban areas," Ms Mihaita said.
"In order to respond to the current climate changes, more efforts should be put into offering citizens the choice to travel by more sustainable and long-term transport modes in an alternating or complementary way, with a high emphasis on safety.
"Sustainable transportation modes should be considered a mandatory step for building better and clean cities for future generations."