The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and acknowledged that the meeting was being held on the lands of the traditional custodians, the Wurundjeri-Woiwurrung People of the Kulin Nation, and paid respect to their elders, past, present and emerging. Given that the next day is the 26th of January, John pointed out that while this date is celebrated by many as Australia Day it is also recognised as a day of sorrow and mourning by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders given the tragic consequences of the colonisation of their lands for their people over the last 225 years.
John then handed the microphone on to Julian who welcomed all of those in the room (14) and on the zoom screen (8) to the meeting, and wished everyone a Happy Lunar New Year (Year of the Roabbit).
Further points to note:
· As reported last week, the Rotary Recycle Treasurer needed a laptop. One of our members stepped up and donated laptop to the RR shop and the issue is now resolved. A big thanks go to Stephen Fisher for his generosity there.
· Regarding the Rotary International Conference in May; those who have registered to attend the conference will have received an email from conference committee this week asking if you would like to volunteer during the event. Just a heads up, if you are planning to volunteer the online form will need to fill out will ask you for a current working with children card number and the date of your last vaccination against C19. So have that information handy if you decide to volunteer.
· Regarding the future merger of D9810 and D9820 to form the new D9815. Nominations are now open for anyone who would like to take on the role of DG in 2025/2026. You should have received and email from District secretary, Judith Eadon. If you didn’t see the email and would like more information, please let Julian know. If you are curious about potentially putting your hat in the ring for the position, please contact the current DG Ken Miller.
· Next week, Julian will be Zooming in to our meeting from Byron Bay. Woodards annual Directors’ conference is on from Sunday to Tuesday.
The Chair led the meeting in a collective “Ahhhhh....” in a sympathetic response to Julian’s conference venue.
Guest Speaker on Wednesday 25th January was our own, Professor Geoff Rose. Geoff is a professor (retired) with the Monash Institute of Transport Studies located within the Department of Civil Engineering at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Geoff ‘s research and teaching activities cover sustainable transport, travel behaviour, advanced technology, and transport policy.
What is micromobility?
Originally it was simple to classify road users as pedestrians, cars, trucks, bicycles and motorcycles. They were understood and straightforward (over time) to regulate.
In 2001 the Segway came along. It didn’t fit a category, was hard to regulate, had no performance or safety standards to meet, but price was high so there weren’t many on the road
In 2015, the Beijing-based company, Ninebot, took over Segway and is now the largest manufacturer of e scooters in the world and with that came a booming new global industry to disrupt traffic and vehicular management around the world.
The challenges included how to classify and then how to regulate the growing variety of new vehicles including e bikes, e scooters (standing and seated), self-balancing boards, powered skates, non-self-balancing boards, etc. In Australia so far we mostly see e bikes and standing e scooters.
The term ‘micromobility’ was developed to encompass this range.
The challenge of regulating micromobility
The transport niche for e scooters is particularly in disrupting car use of short trips, ie, thos is particularly in disrupting car use of short trips, ie, those of 1-8 km which makes up 60% of all car travel. So, for environmental, space, cost, etc they could be good option, but they have to be regulated somehow.
At present every state and territory in Australia has different regulations. Major issue relates to privately owned e scooters which are widely offered for sale. However, in Victoria, only those with less than 200W power and a max speed of 10kph are legal, and can only be used on private land.
In Victoria only shared e scooters in the trial council areas can legally be driven on public bike lanes, shared bike paths and local roads (with speed limits < 60kph). It is illegal to drive an e scooter on a footpath. Bike helmets are also required to be worn and only one person is to be aboard, and they must be at least 18 years old. Maximum speehas been extended for another three months.
Geoff provided detail on how the shared e scooter program operates and is paid for via a phone app, QR codes on the scooter and an account.
The cost of use is approx. $5/day assuming 1.5 hours riding time
the app provides a rich source of data for analysis of the impact and value of the shared e scooter scheme.
Insight into usage of shared e-scooter scheme
The city of Launceston ran an e scooter trial previously. It is a linear city of 86,000 people where because of limits to public transport, residents are very car-dependent. Fewer than 2% of people use public transport to get to work compared to 11% in Melbourne.
Analysis of data gathered there revealed
The avg trip distance was 2.3km
Avg trip time was 15 minutes
Avg speed was 9kph
These results are comparable to other e scooter schemes around the world except in cities where there is a much higher density and usage of public transport (eg Washington DC)
Scooter use does not follow typical peak hour road transport trends, rather usage tends to build during the day and peak in the evenings especially on weekends
While this suggests they may be used mostly for recreational or leisure time use, they also are used most when bus service availability is low or not available at all
Data gathered from the current Victorian trial showed than in a 3-month period
Avg trip distance was 1.6km
Avg trip time was 11.4 mins
Avg speed was 11.4kph
The scooters did take trips from cars and public transport, but particularly were used in place of walking (66% of trips), perhaps a downside.
The environmental credentials of micromobility
Life Cycle Analysis considers environmental impacts including vehicle manufacture, assembly, transport, use phase, operational services and end of life treatment
Key factors are:
Life expectancy of e-scooter & e-bike
% trips which changed from motorised modes (private car, Taxi, Uber etc): about 20 % of shared e-scooters and e-bikes trips in Melbourne would have used a motorised mode
International study drew on rider usage patterns from six cities: Berlin, Dusseldorf, Paris, Stockholm, Melbourne and Seattle
Net impact is a reduction in CO2e (t) from shared e-scooter and e-bike use
Lot of variability among cities studies which reflects usage (Paris has 4 times more km by
shared e-scooters and e-bikes than Berlin) as well as the % shift from motorised modes of transport
Conclusions
rider behaviour and management of that in the shared e scooter schemes remains an issue
regulation and enforcement require further work especially for private scooters
footpath riding is likely to remain contentious
there is evidence that shared micromobility vehicles is not only suitable for large cities with extensive public transport systems, but is also proving to be very useful in regional towns and cities
while it can help reduce emissions it is not a silver bullet
Club Connections is progressively using additional features we have in our investment in Club Runner.
We we evolve the use of Club Runner which will enable us to have information that can be shared across our Club Bulletin, our web site, Facebook and any other social media, there will be features that you find enjoyable, and some that will probably annoy or irritate you.
As you encounter the different aspects as we try the different features - please tell us, what is useful, what is beneficial, and what is annoying or unhelpful.
We will also start and bring a short piece about the different features into each edition of Club Connections.
You will see this week's starting article that highlights the new section that profiles our speakers.
Please provide your feedback to Diane Fisher preferably via email.
Introducing our first short summary on the features of Club Runner that we can use in our Club - Have you checked out our SPEAKERS section in Club Connections?
Read on to see whether you got the full experience.
This section is focussed on the section labelled SPEAKERS
When you hover over the underlined name (hyperlink) you will be taken to more information - Look what happens when you click on this week's speaker Mark Silver
There is more information about the topic, where we have it there is a photo.
On the site you will also find details of past fora which will give you an insight into the detail and framework of the session which is worthy of the 45 minutes (15 from each presenter).
This detail has been brought to our attention from the team in our Environment Committee, whom we thank for their continued diligence in bringing these topics to our attention.
