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Scooters are changing ideas about mobility
July 2002
The appearance of electric scooters on suburban roads and footpaths has happened almost imperceptibly. Yet according to one industry estimate Perth today has more than 10,000 of the tiny vehicles. Suddenly their development is offering new mobility and a new sense of independence both to the disabled and Western Australia's growing population of frail elderly.
Whereas once such scooters seemed no more than a fad, today even supermarkets are rearranging their product lines to give maximum access to people using the vehicles while they shop.
In fact the advent of the electric scooter is posing many implications for transport and urban planners - especially if the vehicles become widely adopted as a "transitional" mode of transport for aging motorists unable to maintain their driving licences.
There could also be an increasing demand for using the vehicles in conjunction with buses and trains. (If and when personal navigation systems become widely adopted, their use in conjunction with scooters and public transport could prove highly effective.)
Sandy Spence, managing director of Daily Living Products, one of Western Australia's largest distributors of electric scooters, says the market for scooters is already strong and the long term prospects are excellent. The aging population is ensuring a growth market and technical developments are broadening potential uses for scooters.
"We are constantly seeing new design innovations and the vehicles themselves are extremely reliable," she says. "People no longer seem to feel self-conscious about driving them."
She has sold scooters to people for use on farms and one recent client planned to drive his vehicle around the deck of a cruise ship. Meanwhile out on the golf course electric scooters have made an appearance as an alternative to the buggy.
Scooters themselves come in three or four-wheel versions and either one or two seats. The average single-seater four-wheeled model costs about $3500, has a top speed of 7km/h and a range of up to 30km. It can be recharged over night from a domestic power point and its battery will last a number of years depending on the quality of batteries fitted. According to Ms Spence the cost of recharging works out at about $10 a year. Maintenance costs are minimal although Daily Living Products recommends an annual service that costs $40.
Electric scooters have clearly benefited from recent efforts to make footpaths, buildings, and transport readily accessible to wheelchairs. But more than that they have been able to combine such accessibility to achieve unprecedented levels of mobility for people who usually find all forms of transport a serious challenge.
It is now possible for a scooter owner to drive from their lounge room down the street, onto a suburban train, and into a city-centre department store - something that was never before achievable with a self-driven powered vehicle.
"Of course we still have access problems," says Ms Spence. "Not all footpaths have sloped access and the other day a client from Kalgoorlie was surprised to discover that you can't drive a scooter on and off the Prospector. (A Western Australian inter-city express.) If you want to take a scooter to Kalgoorlie you have to dismantle it and send it as freight."
Today there are few legal controls on the use of an electric scooter. In WA the main requirement is that it should not exceed a maximum speed of 7km/h. If it does go faster it is treated as a road vehicle and the driver needs a licence. At 7km/h the driver is considered a pedestrian and is required to follow the same rules such as using a footpath if one is available. If a scooter does have to be taken onto a road then the driver it expected to travel along the edge of the roadway facing oncoming traffic.
"In the past two years I have only known of two accidents involving scooters," says Ms Spence.
Today it is usually a relative or the manager of a retirement village who decides when a scooter driver has become too hazardous for their own and others' safety.
Generational differences can also present potential problems. According to Ms Spence some women who are today in their 70s and 80s are ideal candidates for electric scooters - but have never before driven any type of vehicle. Yet they still buy and drive electric scooters.
Ms Spence believes that ideally people should take up scooter ownership as soon as old age claims their driving licences. She says the loss of such licences can be devastating for many people - both psychologically and physically when they confront life without the easy mobility they enjoyed with a car.
"I think if people moved straight from the loss of their car licence to owning an electric scooter, a lot of the distress they now suffer would be eased," she said. "Scooters would then be seen as a natural progression - and not something you should only use when you're frail.
"We have just fitted a scooter for a retired airline pilot who is now 92. It's given him a complete new lease on life. He's mobile and independent again. His only regret is that he did not get one years ago."
