Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Patrick Morgan: Cycling Action Spokesperson on the Government considering moving e-scooters onto bike lanes

Transcript

Patrick Morgan: Cycling Action Spokesperson on the Government considering moving e-scooters onto bike lanes · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Government's considering thinking about moving East scooters into cycle lanes
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: as injury costs go through the roof. Es scooter industries
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: cost ACC nearly fourteen million alone this year. Patrick Morgan
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: is Cycle Action spokesperson with me this morning. Good morning, Patrick,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Good morning Ryan. Are you happy to share a lane
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: with a Lime scooter?
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah? This is long overdue. It makes sense for this
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: to happen. Pedestrians really don't want escooters on the footpath
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: and off in our streets can be quite hostile for people,
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: So it makes sense to put es scooters on bike lanes.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: But we're going to need a lot more bikeplanes, aren't we.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: You just had to do it, didn't you. You had
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: to go there, Patrick, how many more bike planes do
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: we need?
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: Look, modern cities give people choices about how they get
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: around with you walk, bike, take the car, the bus, whatever.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: East scooters are part of modern cities. They're here to stay,
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: but they need to be managed properly. That's why it's
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: good news that the government is at last updating the
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: law to permit them in bike lanes.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: No, I get that, But how many more bike lanes
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: do you reckon? We need?
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: We don't need a bike plane on every street. No
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: one's asking for that. What we need is bike plans
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: on busy streets where people want to go, so to
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: get people to our schools, workplaces, shops. There's a trend
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: in modern cities for people to get around by bike
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: e Bui conscooter. So I think councils and the government
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: need to restart building bike lanes to meet public demand.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Right And is that demand there? Because last time I
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Jin we spent hundreds and millions of dollars probably over
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: billions now on cycle ways across the country and cycle
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: networks across the country, and yet there's still only two
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: percent of us commuting to work on them according to
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: the census.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, you've got to be aware of that. We
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: haven't spent nearly that much. Bike plans are the best
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: bang for bucket transport. You're cheap to do, you can
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: roll them out quickly. There's huge public demand. We can
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: see that in Wellington.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: Some of them are cost tens and millions of dollars
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: for a little tiny one.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: It just doesn't add up to the number you said.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: What we've got is do you know how much Wellington?
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: It's well under that, But they are great value for
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: money because they reduce congestion, they get people where they're going,
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: and they also give people the choices to get around
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: the modern city. So, for example, in Wellington we have
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: added thirty two kilometers of bike lanes in just about
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: four years. On some of them, the numbers have doubles
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: in just over a year's time.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: It's what success looks like, doubled from what to what.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: I think the numbers in Wellington went around four not
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: around four thousand people get around by bike every single
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: day in the numbers even higher. It's not meant imagine
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: all those people.
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Of the vices. But do you know because the number
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: who are commuting to work is an interesting one, isn't it?
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: And that hasn't changed really in the census the two
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: most recent A.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: No, that's not true at all. It's been going up
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: in Wellington for over a decade.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: I'm familiar with.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: Also in christ Church people use it.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: But are they that I mean? Are they? It's like
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: two percent.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: The sensus only measures the journey to work. The trouble
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: with that is that it doesn't count the journeys that
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: many people make. For example, people make in their local
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: communities that children make to school children under fifteen, so
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: we know that the numbers are much higher than that.
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: We also know that people deserve to be safe and
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: by planes keep people safe. How can you put a
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: price on that?
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: All right, Patrick, appreciate your time this morning. Thanks for
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: being with me, Patrick Morgan's Cycling Action spokesperson.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: For more from Early edition with Ryan Bridge, Listen live
• 4:01
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• 4:04
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