Petition re E-Scooters

Before we get to the crux of this communication, please note there is a pictogram and then content that explains why we are seeking support for this petition.

Here first is a description of the pictogram. The top two thirds of the oblong are bright gold with black lettering and symbols, towards the left are the words “Keep footpaths for feet and mobility devices”. To the right there are two stick-type representations – one of a person walking, and another of a wheelchair user. The bottom third is black, and written in white, are the words “Sign the petition”

Read on for content below the pictogram…

Footpaths4Feet has come together to support members of the community who use footpaths to get around. Organised through Living Streets Aotearoa, Blind Citizens NZ along with several other organisations is part of Footpaths4Feet. We have all been working hard to convince Government that footpaths must remain safe spaces for our members and the public by not allowing e-scooters, bicycles and other personal transport devices to be used on them. Blind Citizens NZ has been part of delegations that have met with Ministers and officials, but we need more support for our work.

The Government is bringing in a regulatory package called the Accessible Streets Package. Although there are some good things in it, this package also seems to permanently allow personal transport devices such as e-scooters to be used on our footpaths. In our view, this will make footpaths less safe, and feel less safe for pedestrians (including those in pushchairs, wheelchairs and anyone using a mobility aid). For many people, such as for blind, deafblind, vision impaired, Deaf, hard-of-hearing etc., using the footpath is a necessity and is the main connection to their community. If e-scooters and other personal transport devices are allowed on footpaths, these people, as well as able-bodied pedestrians, will be put at higher risk of injury and feel less safe

Additionally, if Government adopts these regulations, local councils may feel they no longer need to invest in making spaces safe by, for example, installing bike paths and bike lanes or lowering speed limits.

This is why we are asking for your assistance with this petition to Government. You can sign the petition on-line, or you can download a hardcopy submission form. Your support will help create safer streets for our community! It will help us keep footpaths for feet and mobility device users by getting a ban on e-scooters, bikes and other personal transport devices being used on footpaths.

Sign the petition online here. Download a printable version of the petition here. Please return to Footpaths4Feet, 37 Oxford St, Palmerston North 4410 by 6 December 2019.

Download a printable version of the petition

Sign the petition online now

Blind Citizens NZ’s Position on Cyclists on Footpaths

The 2016 Annual General Meeting sought to have Blind Citizens NZ clarify its position regarding cyclists and other wheeled or motorised vehicles that are regularly encountered on our footpaths. Currently, it is legal for vehicles below a certain wheel size, even with low-powered motors, and also motorised mobility vehicles to be used on footpaths.

Concern had arisen due to a petition having been presented to Parliament on which a committee was about to hear submissions. The petition had recommended a change to the road rules to allow children under 14, seniors over the age of 65 and people with mental and physical disabilities to cycle on the footpath.

Blind Citizens NZ’s position is quite clear. It is that no one, even young children, should be able to cycle on footpaths except where there is a designated cycle lane. Apart from our right to feel safe on the footpath, we can also argue that the benefits of being able to cycle there can often be overrated and even misleading. Some points to note are:

1.​Footpaths should be a safe place for people who prefer to walk or have no alternative other than to do so. If footpaths were to become an unsafe environment, even simply through fear of an incident, this would affect not only the blind and vision-impaired, but also the elderly, pram-pushers, wheelchair users, the physically disabled, and those with hearing loss.

2.​Moving a group of cyclists from the road to the footpath would just replace one set of vulnerable road users while at the same time creating another set of vulnerable pedestrians. If it is unsafe to cycle on the roads, why should it be made less safe for those on the footpath?

3.​Mobility scooter users are warned against travelling faster than surrounding pedestrians, but cyclists can’t travel at walking speed. Furthermore, any age and speed limits that may be imposed would be impossible to enforce, or even to monitor.

4.​The very fact that some cyclists may currently be aware that cycling on footpaths is illegal, may cause them to refrain from the practice or at least to take more care than they might if their position was sanctioned under the law.

5.​Most road accidents involving cyclists do not involve motor vehicles. Cyclists injure themselves most often by falling off and hitting things, and there are far more things to hit on footpaths, both moving and stationary.

6.​The very developmental factors that make child cyclists unsafe on roads such as immature motor skills, immature vision and balance, difficulty judging speed and distance; also make them unsafe on footpaths. These factors may not only make them a danger to themselves, but even more so to those they collide with.

7.​Because there is less time to react, vehicles exiting driveways are even more of a hazard to cyclists than they are to pedestrians. Then there is the reality that, whether they’re on the road or on the footpath, cyclists still have to cross intersections, and that’s where most collisions between cyclists and motor vehicles occur.

8.​Many footpaths in suburban areas in New Zealand are narrow and often not well maintained. Even if cyclists acknowledge that pedestrians do have the right of way, such avoidance manoeuvers may not always be successful, placing both parties at risk of injury.

Adopted April 2017

Lost in the Urban Jungle

This briefing document is a supplement to “The Great Barrier Brief”. “Lost in the Urban Jungle” is about Access to the Built Environment and in this we make every endeavour to inform everyone who plays a part in how public buildings are created, including architects, builders, and local authorities.

There is almost nothing that can be done in modern life without at some stage walking into a public building. If you ever go into a shop like a dairy or grocery store, or an airport, hotel, doctor, bank, gymnasium, library or museum, or you go to school or a tertiary education facility, then you are walking into a public building. Public buildings can range in size from something like a simple stand-alone corner shop or a small block of shops on your local street corner to a huge office building in the centre of a big city.

Most people take public buildings so much for granted that they never stop to think that such facilities can be difficult for some people to use. If not properly designed, features such as steps, staircases, escalators, lifts, doors and furniture can be hazards to blind people and other people with disabilities.

Blind Citizens NZ thanks the Lotteries Grants Board for its support and funding of this publication.

Submission – Inquiry into the Accessibility of Services to Parliament

Submission to Discussion Paper “The Wider Journey: The Rights of Disabled People”, Human Rights Commission, March 2012

This is a submission to the Human Rights Commission in response to their discussion paper “The Wider Journey: The Rights of Disabled People”. Our comments correspond to areas that impact upon the ability of blind, deafblind and vision impaired people living in New Zealand to access the built environment safely and independently, to have access to information and to independently vote in local and general elections.

This is a submission to the Human Rights Commission in response to their discussion paper “The Wider Journey: The Rights of Disabled People”. Our comments correspond to areas that impact upon the ability of blind, deafblind and vision impaired people living in New Zealand to access the built environment safely and independently, to have access to information and to independently vote in local and general elections.

Submission on Proposed Changes to Building Code Requirements and Acceptable Solution for Signs

Submission on Proposed Changes to the Acceptable Solution for Building Code Clause F7 (Warning Systems)

Is this the right bus? Public transport – trials and tribulations of the blind traveller

This briefing document is a supplement to the Great Barrier Brief and concisely explains what blind and vision impaired people need as pedestrians who rely primarily on public transport to get around. Areas covered include taxis, buses, trains, staff training, transport facilities and pedestrian travel.

Submission to the Building Bill 2003

Pedestrians – the largest group of road users

Media release calling for safer streets for pedestrians, the largest group of road users. In particular the Association calls for authorities to comply with published Guidelines for Installing Pedestrian Facilities for People with Visual Impairment (RS14), and comply with Pedestrian Standards developed by Standards New Zealand.