I've been passed many times by bicycles and skateboard riders when in the mall. They are there already. On the question of officially allowing these wheels into the mall "supervision" is the key. The mall is certainly large enough to accommodate these activities providing unacceptable behaviour is quickly addressed to establish a safe place for all users.
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Walking our streets today requires the use of driving techniques when changing direction to enter a shop or to greet a friend; "stop, look both ways, then proceed with caution". On balance, we should maintain the mall for pedestrians only, considering the difficulty and cost to provide the necessary supervision. There are few places left strictly for relaxed walking or browsing shops.
Ross Robinson, Wollongong
Walk, don't ride
Surely, if you are fit enough to ride your bicycle into Wollongong, you are fit enough to walk beside your bike for the two blocks of the mall ('No green light yet for bike trial in the mall', Mercury, August 11).
Peter Van der Roo, Wollongong
Eliminate nuclear weapons
The atom bomb dropped on Nagasaki 77 years did not end WWII. (Nagasaki remembers, never again, Mercury, August 10). The bomb dropped on Hiroshima three days before did that. Russia had declared war on Japan and was preparing to invade Japan. That's why the bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. President Truman said the Nagasaki bomb would mean the 20th century would be American. Britain and Russia's possession of the bomb put paid to that but it has not ended the danger of its use.
Nagasaki's mayor at a ceremony to remember the day referred to the war in the Ukraine. He said "another nuclear attack is now tangible in the present crisis". He added that "their elimination is the only way to save humankind". It is this emphasis that should be on our, and the world's agenda. We should not be increasing the employment of nuclear devices for a future nuclear war.
Reg Wilding, Wollongong
Renewables a worldwide trend
What Adrian Devlin (Mercury letters, August 12) continually fails to realise is that the move to renewable energy is not a "green/left" thing (as he keeps asserting), but is an international megatrend driven by governments both conservative and progressive along with corporate capital which is now investing by the billions into these new technologies.
His assertion that nuclear is somehow an "answer" fails to understand that for Australia nuclear power is too expensive and would take too long to build to be of any use in the energy transformation that is currently occurring, and the waste issues remain unresolved.
David Curtis, Fairy Meadow
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