University of Otago School of Physiotherapy lecturer Dr Catherine Smith said yesterday Dunedin footpath use had become increasingly "complex". Apart from pedestrians, users included dog walkers, cyclists and and mobility scooter owners.
These users had "a lot of different perceptions around vulnerability".
She was speaking on the first day of the eight New Zealand/Aotearoa Mobilities Symposium in Dunedin, which focused on "pavements and paradigms: bringing community back into mobilities".
Urban planning and policy were "falling behind the expanding range of personal mobility devices — mobility scooters, skateboards, paws, pushchairs and more recently bicycles — that share pathways traditionally designed for feet," symposium organisers said.
She said key elements of an updated etiquette included mutual respect for and more awareness of the fears and aims of different groups.
Cyclists were concerned about being hit by traffic on the road, and some pedestrians feared they could be hit by wheel-borne users on the footpath.
Dunedin City Council transport group manager Richard Saunders said the council was working, in consultation with the NZ Transport Agency over design, to make city footpaths safer.
But greater dialogue and awareness among shared users, as well as mutual respect and common sense, were needed, given growing pressures from the increasingly diverse use of shared path spaces.
Through the Peninsula connection scheme, the council was progressively widening many sections of the shared pathways there to 3m, he said.
