Scooter case shows transport is key issue

Edinburgh’s transport network needs to work for people who are physically vulnerable, says Helen Martin.

Chris Osborne has been charged over using his electric scooter on the pavement (Picture: Lisa Ferguson)

IT seems very unfair that a disabled man was charged for driving a ‘motor vehicle’ on a Morningside pavement and having no licence or insurance.

It was a wee electric two-wheel scooter going at four miles an hour because he has a chronic leg condition and can’t walk beyond a few metres. He didn’t even know he needed a licence.

It’s just a hint of the problems that will arise from the new plans for public city transport and street planning in local shopping areas.

The aims are correct, involving carbon reduction, car limitation, cycle and pedestrian safety, and improved fitness for new walkers and cyclists.

Most of us agree with all of that. But it just hasn’t been thought out properly to accommodate the aged, those with physical problems, injuries, plasters, crutches, back pain and the rest, plus some unhappy businesses.

The complaints and questions some people have, which are misinterpreted as anti-cyclist or obsessive driver criticisms, are met with aggressive, misunderstood responses and apparently dismissed as irrelevant by the council.

Surely those who produced the initial plans would have realised not everyone would be capable of cycling, walking long distances and carrying burdens – unless the plans were devised by youngsters and athletes.

Discussions with Age Scotland, disability organisations, bodies for the physically vulnerable and local businesses and shops, along with cyclists, pedestrians and environmentalists, might have produced solutions for each area and group, preventing this ‘road change’ from being a controversial, divisive scenario and making it a positive, popular development.

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