Witness statement by Queensland Walks
On 22 July 2025 Queensland, Walks President, Greg Vann and Anna Campbell, Executive Officer, Queensland Walks attended the Queensland State Government’s State Development, Infrastructure and Works Committee – Inquiry into e-mobility safety and use in Queensland in the afternoon session with Bicycle Queensland.
You can view the full session on the State Government Committee broadcast here.
The following statement was prepared and delivered (either in full or in part) by Queensland Walks during the session.
Greg Vann, President
Who are we
Queensland Walks is a thirteen-year-old peak advocacy organisation for walking. We work closely with the community, state departments and local government to improve the conditions and profile of walking in Queensland.
We also convene the Qld Walking Alliance, bringing together 30 organisations with an interest in walking, representing 2 million Qlders in total, and have been closely involved in the Government’s Queensland Walking Strategy and the Action Plan for Walking.
We commend the Government for initiating this inquiry and, while we recognise e-mobility as another useful piece in the urban mobility jigsaw, we also know that our members would like to feel safe and therefore seek improvements to their integration into our communities.
Why walking is important
Substantial evidence demonstrates that more walking improves community health, supports a stronger economy as people walking past spend more and tourism as walking is a key mode for visitors, and makes our communities more liveable and safer.
Everyone walks
When we refer to walking, we mean people who walk, run, roll and stroll, i.e. everyone who walks, people who use a white cane, a seeing eye dog, a mobility device such as a powered chair, motorised scooter or walking frame, older people and our young.
We all walk.
Every journey at least starts and finishes with a walk.
Yet walking is often overlooked as an important piece of our urban transport systems.
So safety and access for people walking, rolling and strolling is everyone’s business.
Overview e-mobility
We are not opposed to e-mobility – if we get it right for e-mobility can mean that it’s getting it right for walking too.
Our submission highlights three key areas:
- Footpaths are for walking.
They are called footpaths for a reason. This should be their primary focus and people walking on them should feel safe from risk of trauma from other modes like e-mobility devices.
- Infrastructure investment
Like bicycles more generally, the key to successful integration of e-mobility to make their best contribution to our communities. It needs its own dedicated pathways, rather than crowding out footpaths.
- Regulation, enforcement and monitoring
Successful integration of e-mobility requires clear rules for where it can be used and how fast it can go, effective enforcement of those rules, and transparent data collection to monitor how successful their operation is.
I’ll now pass over to our Executive Office Anna Campbell to speak further to our submission.
Anna Campbell, Executive Officer, Queensland Walks
Queensland Walks has been advocating for the safety of people walking for 13 years, and we’ve been involved in the Transport and Main Roads’ E-Mobility safety and parking reference groups since 2021.
Queensland Walks is a member of Cycling and Walking Australia and New Zealand, working with state-based walking organisations, and we are a member of the International Federation of Pedestrians.
Before I get into detail, I want to acknowledge our collaborative advocacy agencies who represent the needs of people who are older or who have disability – those who are more impacted by new vehicle technology use and poor parking than most people. These advocacy organisations include Qlders with Disability Network, Vision Australia, Blind Citizens, Guide Dogs Qld and Council on the Ageing QLD.
Qld Walks specialises in understanding the view from the perspective of pedestrians, especially those more impacted by safety. We have done this through community and organisation engagement, surveys and citizen science. To our knowledge our 2021 online Walking and e-mobility survey, has been the only external research conducted in Queensland focusing on people walking and the impact of new technology. We encourage more investment in this type of research and engagement.
I reiterate the key points from our submission:
- Footpaths are for walking!
- A much higher level of investment in active and e-mobility infrastructure is necessary for safety and to adapt to new technology.
- Clear rules, monitoring, compliance, enforcement, and clear and transparent crash reporting are vital for the safety and comfort of everyone.
I’d like to summarise other key points in our submission. We’d welcome any questions on these points.
1. Our regulation, enforcement and monitoring recommendations would include an advanced TMR crash and hospitalisation reporting dashboard.
We encourage the Qld Government to be the national leaders in road safety reporting, via a comprehensive publicly available dashboard.
2. We recommend better enforcement of existing rules and clearer incident reporting by Queensland Police Service and asset owners and government
We recommend:
- better policing where there is higher pedestrian movement or locations of concern
- parking off footpaths, and a better system for reporting, removing and fining asset owners and hirers for unsafe and cluttered footpath parking
- We need to be specific where e-mobility can and should be used, how they are ridden, and parked.
- Equally compliance and enforcement is essential, especially at the right locations, and responding to feedback from advocacy organisations is critical to the success of e-mobility.
3. The easiest way to reduce crashes and vulnerability will be to reduce urban speed road environments
We recommend the findings and actions from the Queensland Road Safety Strategy with a focus on Movement and Place, safer roads and more action to significantly reduce all road trauma. I refer to the QLD Walking Alliance ‘Safer Roads Now’ discussion summary.
4. We must improve the way Queensland Police Service and media report crashes – fairly and accurately
We recommend that appropriate reporting of crashes (not accidents) is clear and defined via Qld Police Service and media. We’ll leave this to RACQ and Bicycle Qld to advocate, however we note language and wording also impacts pedestrians.
5. The federal, state and local government needs to significantly increase funding for active transport infrastructure, projects and programs.
The popularity of e-mobility and new and emerging technologies provides a wonderful opportunity to increase active modes and shift our record of road crashes through suitable investment in separated and safe infrastructure that benefits walkers, riders and all other road users.
Similarly, increasing the investment in advocacy organisations to support active healthy transport choice is critical to the safety of all local road users, and equally important for tourism and events
Proper infrastructure significantly reduces crashes for all modes. We recommend investment in:
- Physically separated infrastructure
- Raised priority crossings
- Safer streets designed for active travel.
We think the successful model is for all levels of government to contribute funding. We support the funding model that at least 20% of transport budgets are allocated to active transport (and e-mobility).
6. Finally, we need to continue to fund and back walking and riding as a desirable transport mode rather than ‘vulnerable transport’.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a local or a visitor to Queensland, everyone has the right to feel safe and comfortable walking on footpaths and on shared paths in Queensland. Walking should remain first priority. Separation of speed differentials is key.
To summarise, e-mobility plays an important role in Queensland, however we’ve been so focused on new technologies, that we’ve been missing the tried and true and core transport mode – walking and riding. Walking is a mode that is essential for every day, and the better we cater for people walking, the safer our streets will be.
Thank you for hearing our statement. We’ll happily take questions.
