MY OPINION
UNEASY RIDERS
MOVE OVER NOOSA
In the urban jungle, a new footpath predator has emerged: the e-scooter. It’s time, writes Jane Stephens, for rideable rules to be rewritten.
Ashley Robinson says a fancy new development in Caloundra could become the new Noosa for our southern holiday makers.
I
have an uneasy relationship with those travelling bipedal style. With the space becoming crowded, maybe it is time to review that. The bell issue causes ructions too. Bikes must have one, but scooters needn’t. Even when they are used, some pedestrians get alarmed or grumpy at being alerted. The laws are complicated. For example, in Queensland you don’t have to wear a helmet when using a human-powered wheeled recreational device, but a helmet is required if a foot scooter has an electric motor. Oh, or if you are riding a humanpowered bike. Go figure. The focus needs to be on safety for the rider and others on footpaths, so small additions such as compulsory helmets and bells would seem logical, but would that mean oldies on mobility scooters need to risk helmet hair too? Under current law, e-scooters are classed as mobility scooters, which gives them access to everywhere accessible by pedestrians. There are two certainties: rideables are here to stay and there are more riders on footpaths every day. We all need to up our game before the chance to improve this unwieldy situation scoots by.
t is a jungle out there on the footpaths, with wheeled contraptions zipping among bipeds trudging all in lines. And as happens when wildness flourishes in crowded urban places, the time has come for a little pruning and shaping. We need far more than legislative reform: we have to consider our interactions, our attitudes and our infrastructure. Bicycles, scooters, e-scooters, mobility scooters and skates of the board, roller and inline kind – the footpaths are booming with life. And why not? You get from A to B faster and with less effort. But while the visions of skimming along at speed that were once part of science fiction and fantasy are very real now, this is not the utopia depicted in the 1970s and ’80s. With speed comes collisions. And cranky pedestrians. And confusion about what is allowed for whom. Footpath users don’t need to register their vehicles, and maybe that warrants consideration for review. No registration means no insurance cover and that means anyone flattened or any property damage done is mostly not covered. Bikes are allowed on footpaths in Queensland, unlike other states, and they
Jane Stephens is a USC journalism lecturer, media commentator and writer.
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deadset had to look twice the other day as I was recovering from COVID and thought I had a relapse at an article I thought I saw. Not Noosa was the headline, which suits me by the way. But it was about a development in Caloundra offering Victorians an alternative to Noosa, which is about the time I thought COVID had kicked in again. My thoughts on Noosa are pretty well known, apart from going to watch the Pirates, Tigers or Dolphins fight it out against a team from the poor south, I have little interest in going there. Unless there is a surf carnival and I manage to get a park closer than Peregian. Sure the surf is great, but the last time I went there on my dreaded knee board I spent two hours looking for a park. Then, after paddling into a southerly sweep before I actually caught a wave, I managed to drop in on ex-world champ Wendy Botha and basically got told where to go, which I did. I’ve never been back. So with that cleared up, and realising it was an actual story, I went on to read about an advertising campaign in the heart of Melbourne teasing those pesky
Victorians that Caloundra is a better option than Noosa. A development at the top of Caloundra Main Street, Paloma Paloma is its trendy name and it will sit on the old Post Office site. Now, growing up we always called Caloundra ‘Nambour by the sea’ and I should know about both as I lived my teenage years in Nambour, and as a toddler had holidays in Caloundra with my grandad. I have always said both places have had some bad press over the years as there are some great people and reasons to live there. However, in the past few years Caloundra has really taken off and I have to agree with the developer, there are far more options beach-wise at Caloundra. Kings, Shelly, Happy Valley, Moffat, Ann Street, Currimundi and Wurtulla are some beautiful options with about half the amount of people vying to put up their cabana. I can see a problem though. How do those taffy noses say Caloundra with a plumb in their mouth when someone at the country club asks them where they holidayed because Noooosaaaa is so easy to say.
Ashley Robinson is the manager of Alex Surf Club and the chairman of the Sunshine Coast Falcons.
The opinions expressed are those of the authors. These are not the views of My Weekly Preview publishers.
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