Margaret Howes, Empire Vale
Welcome to Scooterville and the town of vacant shops
Shame on you, Cr Robyn Hordern, for making a concerted attempt to get rid of the scooters. This is the last lifeline of independence for many elderly, disabled and infirm people, who rely heavily on this form of transport to visit friends, go to the club, attend medical appointments, and do their shopping. This is their freedom, and you, Cr Hordern, want to take it away?
Shame on you, Cr Sue Meehan, for introducing ‘brown bombers’ to the Ballina CBD area, where parking is limited, businesses are struggling, shop vacancies are many, and the fat cats in the Cherry St Mafia are incompetently managing our assets. Come down from up high with those helium-filled boobs! This is Christmas, so give everyone a break, please!
In the September/October issue of NRMA’s Open Road magazine, on page 20 it states: ‘In an Australian first, the NRMA, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and mobility experts have conducted research to collect information on the use of motorised mobility scooters… which tells us there is a need for education of all road users, to ensure that we integrate scooters safely into our transport mix’.
The NRMA and ACCC are already on the case and have identified that there is a need for better-quality scooter-rider training in regional and rural areas, and a need for quality footpaths and infrastructure to ride them on.
Instead of inviting the bureaucrats to become FIFOs when the NRMA and ACCC have already done the hard yards, why can’t the wide new pavements in River Street be marked with a scooter lane? What about spending some of our rate money on signposting similar lanes throughout the urban areas?
Let’s make Scooterville a happy place for everyone.
