Riders of large motorised mobility devices are off the hook, thanks to new road rules that finally recognise their legal right to travel on footpaths.
This week, the NSW Government has at last amended the rules regarding restrictive weight limits, so that immense gophers are no longer considered ”illegal” when riding on footpaths and walkways.
Serena Ovens, CEO of the Physical Disability Council of NSW, said the change is long overdue.
“The PDCN has been advocating for the onerous weight restriction to be lifted for several years,” she said.
“We literally had situations where people had gone to the cost and effort of purchasing MMDs, and were told; ‘This is too heavy, it’s illegal to use this to get around and you can’t use it in our grounds’.
“At the same time, the weight restrictions were limiting our members’ ability to import newer, more advanced models – it was an arbitrary rule with little to no practical justification and had serious impacts on our members’ independence and capacity to engage in community life.”
Broken Hill people riding even the most gigantic motorised mobility devices can now breathe easy.
IMAGE: No longer “illegal”. PICTURE: fsHH/Pixabay
This article was first published on 25 September 2021.
