Page 1902 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 16 June 1993
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skateboarders and rollerbladers from going into particular areas in some of the suburban centres. That is extremely dangerous and, I would suggest, irresponsible. As Ms Szuty has said, the mechanism we are now proposing is an appropriate way to have those concerns addressed.
On the question of pushbikes, and I accept the knowledge of Mr Humphries and my colleague Mr Connolly on this, I understand that it is currently illegal for a person to ride within a prescribed distance of a shopfront. That technically would prevent any bike riding at all in the city, particularly in the pedestrian mall areas. You have to go through an area within 10 metres of a shopfront to get into the pedestrian mall or you are within 10 metres of shopfronts in most locations within those pedestrian malls.
Mr Humphries: Unless you are on a road.
MR LAMONT: There are no roads in a pedestrian mall.
Mr Humphries: There are shops against the road.
MR LAMONT: I do understand and accept that; but you must also accept that we have an extensive pushbike network in the ACT, with a whole range of people, including workers in shopping centres, who ride their pushbikes to and from work.
Mr Humphries: But they can wheel their bicycles when they get to these areas.
MR LAMONT: I understand. I am not suggesting that there are not ways to overcome the problem, Mr Humphries. All I am doing is trying to identify, for the purpose of the deliberations of the committee, some of the issues we will need to address. Pushbikes are a particular example of an issue that does need special attention, certainly in relation to the existing law and its enforcement. As an example, as you may recall, I spent some time as the secretary of the Transport Workers Union, covering such great people as the bus drivers who operate in ACTION. We have around Australia a specific classification of pushbike rider and a range of other people.
Mr Cornwell: Skateboarders?
MR LAMONT: In fact, we do have couriers in Sydney who use skateboards in some areas; but specifically you will see pushbikes dodging through the traffic in metropolitan Sydney, in particular where professionally they are required to undertake their role in that fashion. The point I was trying to make was that we had some difficulty with pushbike riders in the bus interchange in the city. That specifically is still a designated roadway. You can ride a pushbike on a designated roadway, but it is the city bus interchange. How do we address that issue as part of the totality of the questions you have raised, Mr Humphries? Again, that is a specific question the committee will need to address.
In addition, we need to take into account the fact that some areas in the city should be added to our pedestrian ways. That will expand the size of the problem, and that may be something that should be looked at, although the Legal Affairs Committee is probably not the appropriate one to investigate such a matter. I suppose that the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Committee would be the more appropriate of the Assembly's committees to investigate that specific question. I understand that there are moves, not at
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