The news that a 16-year-old scooter rider died from his injuries at the weekend after being hit by a drunk driver in early August, and police announcing they’d booked 34 riders in Paphos on Sunday highlight the growing nightmare scooters continue to create for riders, motorists and police.

Unfortunately, there is no easy solution. By the laws of statistics, more scooters, more problems, more injuries and deaths. So far this year, police have booked over 5,100 scooter riders. That’s 20 a day. At the same time, the number of people using them is the thousands, too many of them minors. 

At its core, this is an infrastructure problem and also something that is rife with contradictions. The stated policy is to lean towards e-transport to reduce the number of cars on the roads in urban areas.

Much of this is environmental grandstanding for EU consumption, and cash. Cyprus is a car-centric society and everything still points in that direction. Just look at the pressure to reopen Makarios Avenue in Nicosia to cars.

Scooter riders more often than not are left with little option other than to use the roads even outside low-speed neighbourhoods, which is allowed. There is no seamless integration of bicycle lanes in most cities so the option is to ride in the bike lane then walk to the next bike lane…if there is one. That is no way to get around.

Many pavements around Nicosia are wide enough to have been adapted for a bike lane when being built but for some reason were not. It’s not like there are many pedestrians using a good number of these pavements but drivers certainly are – for parking.

Some may call for a ban on the scooter menace but this would be at the expense of people who cannot afford a car and would belie the stated goal of future urban mobility. The infrastructure needed would take years and cost millions, if it is possible.

Has anyone suggested banning cars, which still comprise the majority of fatalities from collisions? Of course not. Could scooter riders be more careful? Absolutely, but so could motorists. At the same time, an overcautious or fearful motorist driving behind a scooter could also cause an accident while trying to second-guess whether they’re reckless or not.

Road users in Cyprus tend to think the roads are theirs whether they are motorists, scooters or delivery guys on e-bikes and mopeds.

The question authorities need to ask is: “Have we done everything we possibly can to accommodate all road users?” The answer would be no.

The maximum that can be done to create suitable infrastructure and a functioning public transport system should be done. If this at least had been accomplished in all the decades of talking about it, there just might be fewer motorists and scooters on the roads in the first place.