In 2022, Utrecht (Holland) was ranked the world’s most bike-friendly city. Australia seems keen to compete, with the number of cyclists increasing and cycle paths becoming a must-have for eco-conscious local councils. Unsurprisingly, Canberra’s Green council holds the record as it strives for the most sustainable title.

Recent statistics show that one in five road accident hospital admissions are cyclists. This equates to roughly 12,000 a year with approximately 40 deaths. Accidents are slowly declining, but the mortality rate in those over 60 is increasing. While older people are taking up cycling, fewer children cycle to school, largely due to parents fearing for their safety. This lack of exercise may be worsening the obesity epidemic.

However, promoting fitness with outdoor activities such as cycling may have a downside. Apart from the diversion of funds from traditional council activities to facilitate cycling, the invasion of bikes onto footpaths has had adverse consequences for walkers. Over two-thirds of bicycle/pedestrian interactions occur on footpaths. Figures from the UK showed an annual average of 70 serious injuries and three deaths, with near-accidents becoming 50 times more common.

Having just survived a ‘close encounter’, I can understand why some people may have been discouraged from walking, particularly with the arrival of e-scooters.

The increase of adult bike riding is partly linked to hire companies. One of the earliest examples of bikeshare was started in Amsterdam around 1965 known as Witte Fietsenplan.

Although unsuccessful at first, the basic idea eventually spread around the world reaching Melbourne in 2010.

Again, its start in Australia was rocky, with the failure of a public-private partnership, but hire companies kept popping up in other capital cities.

Even though the idea has persisted, ordinary bikes kept ending up in our rivers and parks where they had been abandoned.

Now, new operators are coming online in the hope that electric bikes will save the bikeshare market.

This saga did not start with bikes. The original electric personal transport, the much-hyped Segway, was introduced in 2001. The two-wheeled machine relied on balance and proved to be an expensive flop for the general population.

The concept of a Segway has evolved into the lighter, cheaper, collapsible e-scooter which is appearing everywhere, both privately owned and for hire. The first hire scooters appeared in 2018 and by 2022, 3.6 million riders spent money on e-scooters. This equates to over $700 million with their use expanding by 5 per cent annually. Around 300,000 are privately owned. With use for commuting, recreation, and delivery services, this invasion of e-technology is likely to overtake cycling and walking, with adverse effects on fitness and weight to be expected. In China, inevitably the main manufacturer, there were 350 million in use by 2022.

Depending on the battery, scooters can travel at 10 to 25 km/h and have a range of 50 to 200km. Some top-end e-scooters have hit 120km/h!

The argument proposed (which excludes energy for production and electricity generation) is that e-scooters are ‘environmentally sustainable and eco-friendly’ and will reduce C02 emissions. Their sustainability only lasts for around 10 years before they are added to waste generation. The life span of e-scooters in the hire industry is even worse, with many making it only 6 months before requiring a battery change. This somewhat dents their renewable credentials. Although metal can be recycled, the batteries cannot. Even more depressing for the fitness argument, some hire e-scooters come with seats so you don’t even have to stand!

The other introduction, from improved batteries, has been powered e-bikes with different battery sizes. All variations require a helmet and a licence if used on the road. They are allowed on footpaths, but at reduced speed. Scooters outnumber e-bikes 5:1.

When it comes to e-bikes and e-scooters in a share-system, it seems as though e-scooters are the hire winner in Sydney. London and the US prefer e-bikes, where London has tripled its hire fleet and the US has quadrupled its numbers in three years. In some countries, one in every two bikes sold is electric.

The e-market is not limited to bikes and scooters. Skateboards have been around since the 1950s and were initially made in California from a board with roller skates attached. They were for use when there were no waves to surf. In 1975, the first motorised boards appeared where the initial version used a longboard and a petrol engine. Skip to 1997 and we find the first e-skateboard, also created in California. The first version to be powered by an app appeared in 2012. Regulations about the use of e-skateboards vary from state to state in Australia. Surprisingly, they were banned in California until recently. As if the original didn’t cause enough trouble, the greater speed and greater inattention of the young users puts walkers at even more risk.

Safety issues come in more than one variety. There is increasing recognition that the lithium-ion batteries that power these items can cause fires. We have seen headlines in the press detail container ships sinking, fires in battery storage facilities, golf club blazes (4 so far in Australia), and house fires. The main culprits have been electric vehicles, but some of these fires have also been caused by e-scooters and e-bikes, power tools, torches, and even the small batteries in vapes! These fires typically, but not always, occur when batteries are plugged in to charge. The fires that result are difficult to control which has caused insurance premiums to rise as a result.

During a cost of living crisis, the price of installing new footpaths to accommodate e-devices is not cheap. As far back as 2009, the cost of dedicated shared paths was put at $1 million per kilometre. Woke Merri-bek Council (formerly known as Moreland) last year allocated $4.5 million to constructing paths and other transport options. Sydney City has a budget of $69 million, over 4 years, for 25km of bicycle infrastructure projects. Western Australia plans to spend $347 million over 4 years on cycleways and footpaths.

In some countries, the experiment with dedicated cycle road lanes has been discontinued as it has not reduced accidents or increased traffic speed. In others, some with lengthy experience, the development of an extensive network has been a success. Evidence from inner cities in Australia suggests that bicycle use is increasing.

There is varying confirmation that these innovations have reduced road traffic, reduced road cycling accidents, or increased activity, and certainly the ever-increasing obesity epidemic is unsupportive. What is clear is that moving traffic onto shared paths has increased accidents for pedestrians and reduced walking traffic. With a typical width of a few feet, there is, inevitably, unhealthy competition for right-of-way and conventions such as keeping to the left only applies if the path is wide enough. Cyclists should afford pedestrians the same courtesy they expect from drivers on the road.

Perhaps councils who wish to virtue signal could put their best foot forward (pun intended) by instead spending rate-payers money on planting trees…

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