Commenting on the story: South Australia’s e-scooter laws might not change until 2025

E-scooters are unsuitable for Adelaide. Yes, they might be trendy, however they are left lying all over the place with little consideration for others, be it pedestrians, road safety or other vehicles and sometimes they are left abandoned in the middle of pedestrian crossings.

Driving is sometimes hazardous, with scooters screaming through when a vehicle is making a turn with no intention of taking due care, and travelling either on the footpath or bicycle lane.

How does one deal with accidents to other vehicles or persons, what about liability and third-party insurance?

As a result, we are also seeing electric bikes being operated for similar activities, begging the question: Who has the responsibility for managing or policing to a reasonable standard the operation of these vehicles?

What happens if an e-scooter operator is hit by another vehicle? Particularly when the e-scooter operator is undertaking a high-risk action or being inattentive using their mobile phone / texting whilst in operation.

Despite the convenience, there is free public transport in the city. It seems to me that this is a superior managed service with controlled and regular service to the city square delivering a much lower risk profile. – Malcolm Lewis

The article about e-scooter laws by Thomas Kelsall notes that there was “public consultation in 2023 that was broadly supportive of micro-mobility”.

The article fails to point out that the sample who responded to the survey is unrepresentative of South Australians and thus, in turn, the results are of limited value.

For example: 70% of respondents to the survey were male compared with 49% of SA residents; 50% of respondents were aged from 30-49 while 25% of SA residents are in this age bracket; and most importantly, half of the respondents had indicated they had used fleet e-scooters – which no one could ever suggest is representative of SA residents.

It would be useful if articles that are written about the uses of e-scooters in SA noted the limited value of the public consultation as the results are far from ‘unequivocal’ as the government has suggested multiple times. To suggest that they are is over-inflating the value of the information gained from the public consultation. – Adriana Vanden Heuvel 

Commenting on the story: A shake-up is planned for the South Australian Museum

I agree with those in favour of keeping the stuffed animals in their present place since it’s very accessible to parents with young children. It means that they can get up really close to see them—something that is not always possible at the zoo—and it is free of charge!

I still remember a young nephew getting down on hands and knees to look at the capybara’s sharp front teeth, and his delight in seeing them. The animal was placed very close to the window of the display case. That was a highlight of our visit. – Helen Schubert