Millions of dollars are spent every year on road safety initiatives for the ACT in pursuit of the ephemeral Vision Zero.
But in the quest for public micro-mobility convenience, low cost solutions prevail.
Once the ACT government committed to the concept, the die was cast.
Two rental providers were anointed and soon hundreds upon hundreds appeared like colourful mushrooms on our streets, with swipe and ride convenience for all and sundry.
Children are not supposed to ride them, of course, but they do. You shouldn't ride one without a helmet either, but it's very common. And you shouldn't ride one drunk either, yet at least one in five are riding and injured while "clinically intoxicated".
Some years on from the devices' stamp of approval by the ACT government, our health system is counting the cost of that decision.
With some careful study, Canberra orthopaedic surgeon Dr Igor Policinski has revealed hundreds of e-scooter riders are injured every year.
His study has offered the first realistic assessment of the injury toll, and the Australian Medical Association knows there are hundreds more - full dental rebuilds, fractured skulls and the like - that were not scooped up by orthopaedics and are conveniently - for the ACT government, at least - not public because the data simply isn't easily collated.
This is why when an independent 2021 desktop analysis was presented to the ACT government, no red flags came up.
We can only hope with that the rollout of digital health records, where anonymity can be protected but patient data generated on any number of causal factors, the true, complete injury picture may emerge.
Accepting that e-scooters are a well-embraced concept by the public and delivering a convenience that we never thought we needed, the issue is one of government hypocrisy over physical safety.
On the one hand, Canberra's car drivers are facing ever more stringent controls in the pursuit of reduced accidents.
Slow down driver, the legislators say: you could hurt yourself or someone else. If you don't, we will fine you or take your licence away, or police will impound your car.
And fair enough. Cars are dangerous when not driven safely, and a driver's licence should be a privilege, not a right.
But here's the hypocrisy: with no license, no training and no experience, anyone can swipe on with a credit card, jump on an e-scooter, ignore the helmet rule, even have another person jump on as well, then zoom off into the thick of the traffic flow, no questions asked, at 25kmh. And with precious little chance of being breathalysed.
And sure, 25kmh doesn't sound fast - until you come off.
The rental e-scooters' tiny wheels can't handle common urban obstacles such as potholes, large rocks and protruding tree roots. When the pitchpole accident happens, the automatic response is to throw your arms forward to protect yourself. Wrists and forearms are hugely vulnerable, as are your teeth, jaw, and nose.
And here's more hypocrisy: these hundreds of injuries from e-scooters appear to be an acceptable risk because of the devices' perceived social benefit and public convenience. Any risk involved is transferred to the user who, when injured, becomes a cost to the public health system.
So who holds the duty of care in this discussion? Is it the providers, or the government, or the users? Or should we all just look the other way?
