Am I being unreasonable to suggest that scooters should be banned on pavements?

[Morgause]

An hour ago I went up the lane to pay the papers. The pavement isn't particularly wide but not very narrow either. A little girl aged 3 -4 scooted past me quite quickly which made me jump a bit as I hadn't heard her coming. I looked round to see her mother with a buggy quite a way back down the lane. She shouted the little girl's name and told her to wait.

I walked past her and into the shop round the corner and paid the bill. As I came back around the corner the mother had caught up with the little girl and she had begun to scoot on again. Unfortunately she scooted straight into an elderly lady just leaving her gate and they both went flying. I called an ambulance and other neighbours came out to see what could be done to help. It looks like the little girl has broken her arm and the old lady may have broken her hip or her leg - maybe both.

The ambulance man said that scooters are a "bloody nuisance" and if kids aren't falling off them they are ploughing into people on them. He thinks they should be banned anywhere but gardens and parks. The local bobby, also present, agreed.

I think the same after what I saw today. M (the old lady) is the sole carer for her elderly husband who is very disabled following a stroke. Goodness knows what will happen to him now. A neighbour is with him for now and is hoping to contact someone from social services for some emergency care.

school run. hoardes of kids on scooters, parents and kids on bikes and dogs on retractable leads - all on the pavement going along this way and that- oh forgot the prams. total chaos. frayed tempers. lots of shouting. every flaming morning and home time. sigh

Cannot resist pointing out that on study of the (1835) act and also the bylaws and royal laws on London parks, did you all realise that:

the 1835 act, if it makes scooters illegal on pavements by implication, similarly makes baby carriages and pushchairs illegal. Only invalid carriages ie nonmotorised wheelchairs are specifically allowed.

current bylaws ban bicycles in London parks except on roads that cars are allowed to use and some dedicated cycle paths. Your children cannot in fact learn to ride their bikes in the parks; they cannot legally ride their bikes to the Princess Diana playground in Hyde Park, or the playgrounds in Holland Park and Battersea Park, for instance. (Sending a mixed signal from the council, the Battersea Park playground actually has a cycle parking rack right outside the gate, well past the signs saying no cycling.)

The fact that the laws are so unclear is further evidence that our pavements, like our roads, are increasingly being asked to accomodate all sorts of vehicles that simply didn't exist when the roads and pavements were first built. It's lucky that the sci-fi dreams of our childhood didn't come true and lead to personal small planes darting all around our heads as well!