Personal mobility devices are all very good. I also have one of them – my treasured Inokim Light. It is umpteenth times cheaper than petrol-powered vehicles. I do not have to pay for ERP fees, no parking fees and I avoid jams. To top off the list of pluses, I do not harm the environment. H.G.Wells since said, “Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the future of the human race.” I suppose if he were a man of this generation, he would say the same about such personal mobility devices. With such glowing positives, it seems odd that not everyone is embracing such a convenient mode of transport.
Of course, it can never go as fast and as far as a car or motorcycle. But sometimes, I drive instead of ride my Inokim because I just feel more protected in steel, even in short distance commuting. I DO feel the thrill of the speed on the Inokim and it is exhilarating once I got the hang of it. Sometimes, very rarely, I hit 25km/hr and it is at very empty roads, not pavements, that one can ride comfortably at that speed. But being the very cautious person that I am, the alarm bells start ringing in my head that I’ve got to slow down and within seconds of hitting 25hm/hr, I go down to as low as 16km/hr or less. All these without a helmet.
My father always tells me: when driving on the road, avoid big trucks. Do not be behind or beside them. The smaller vehicle will never win. And so this is drummed into my head. Maybe this has somehow made me very cautious on my Inokim. The smaller vehicle will never win.
This piece of advice resounds through my head whenever I read or hear about motorbike accidents with bigger vehicles and definitely when I read about the 3 e-bikers who met with a trailer that fateful night on 27 Oct. 2016. The e-bike is meant to be on the road, yes. That makes it pretty vulnerable, like ikan bilis swimming among sharks and whales. A good friend of mine reminds me to wear a helmet on when riding my e-scooter. A rather professional e-scooterist once told me about his accident on the e-scooter and the rather severe injury he suffered because he did not wear a helmet. Another who is a road cyclist once told me of how her helmet cracked when she fell on the road and that probably protected her head – the helmet, not the fall. I think I will be a bit more serious now about getting a helmet and wearing it, just that I delay this aspect of safety due to my irrational and inexcusable pickiness about style and the fact that I do not like to be in sweaty headgear. It is at this time that I also share with you, the reader, a reminder to get your helmet and wear it, especially if you are riding an e-scooter or personal mobility devices capable of going up to 25km/hr and beyond.
So please take care this Deepavali holiday. Ride safe and be safe. If you want to go green and do Mother Earth some good, do yourself some good too. Do read the table from LTA, put up below post, about what devices are allowed and on which terrain.
Under (the) Covers 