Motorists on Aucklands Northwestern Motorway have been surprised to see an electric scooter weaving through traffic. Photo: Supplied / Stuff
Motorists on Auckland's Northwestern Motorway have been surprised to see an electric scooter weaving through traffic, but the jury is still out on whether it's illegal.
Last week, Peter Idione captured footage of a rider on an e-scooter overtaking his Tesla at an estimated 90kph.
"It was a shock to see the guy going past us. I was doing around 83kph."
He said the scooter had a small profile and was poorly lit from the back. He and his wife felt that it would be easy for a motorist to miss the scooter if they were changing lanes.
"[The rider] was passing most of the cars on the motorway, and he continued to weave through traffic before getting off at Great North Road."
It's not the first time the rider has raised an eyebrow. After Idoine posted the footage on social media, he said a friend got in contact to say they had also seen them speeding down the Northwestern Cycleway.
It is generally understood that mopeds or scooters should not be ridden on the motorway, because their top speed isn't fast enough to safely join fast moving traffic, but new high-powered e-scooters may sit in a legal grey area.
The e-scooter rider may have been breaking the 80kph speed limit on the Northwestern Motorway near St Lukes in Auckland. Photo: Supplied / Stuff
A spokesperson for Waka Kotahi said any e-scooter that had a top speed of above 50kph was legally classed as a motorcycle.
In fact, any e-scooter with a power level above a relatively small threshold of 300 watts cannot be lawfully ridden on any road unless they were licensed and registered.
"Motorways are high speed environments and it's important that all vehicles using them are legally and appropriately registered and licensed," the spokesperson said.
Jonno Leonard of the Electric Scooter Shop in Takapuna said he recognised the scooter in the footage as being a particularly high powered model likely imported from Australia.
He said he had previously sold a few but had stopped retailing them because he did not support "that kind of riding".
"It is not what we feel scootering should be about, which is providing simple, cheap and effective transport."
Leonard said riders "hooning it" down cycleways and footpaths, or even motorways, gave everyone a bad name.
He said current legislation around e-scooters was "very woofly" and needed updating. For example, riders were not legally required to wear helmet although it was encouraged.
Leonard wants rules that define where a scooter can be ridden and varying speed limits set for riding on the footpaths, shared paths and the road.
He said with more apartments in Auckland and fewer parking spaces, scooters were increasingly being used for commuting.
"Now we're even starting to see electric unicycles. These things are not going away."
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Transport said the government was expected to be considering new regulations later this year.
"We acknowledge the regulations have not kept up with technology advancements in some privately-owned electric vehicles, such as the e-scooter seen in the video."
NZ Police has been contacted for comment.
- This story was first published byStuff.