New licence laws will damage Queensland’s tourism economy, with visitors banned from using Neuron or Lime e-scooters or bikes to travel around destinations such as Brisbane and the Gold Coast, an industry body has warned.
The state government has accepted, in principle, all 28 recommendations of an e-mobility inquiry, with laws set to be introduced into parliament this week.
It will make Queensland one of the most restrictive jurisdictions in the world for e-bikes limited to pedal assistance up to 25km/h.
Children younger than 16 will be banned from riding pedal-assist e-bikes, 10km/h limits would be introduced on all paths and riders would have to hold at least a Queensland car learner’s permit.
People riding high-powered electric motorbikes – most of which already banned from being ridden on public roads or footpaths – would have to get a motorbike licence and register the device.
Queensland Tourism Industry Council CEO Natassia Wheeler has spoken out about the licence component of the proposed laws, arguing a blanket requirement for compliant e-bikes and e-scooters “may have significant unintended consequences”.
Wheeler said the QTIC acknowledged community concern about e-mobility safety and supported proportionate reforms that improved safety and addressed the growing harm associated with illegal and modified devices.
“Many visitors use active and low-emissions transport modes to move around tourism destinations, particularly in high-visitor urban and coastal locations such as Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Cairns and Townsville,” she said.
“Shared e-scooters and legal e-bikes can play an important role in first-and-last-mile transport, local dispersal, access to attractions, and visitor movement within dense tourism precincts.”
Wheeler said a requirement to hold a Queensland driver’s licence would be a barrier for international visitors, temporary visitors and students hoping to use a low-speed and compliant device.
She argued there should be a distinction between compliant e-bikes and e-scooters used appropriately and illegal, modified, high-powered or high-speed devices.
The licence rules are a departure from the norm across Australia and worldwide, where riders generally do not need licences for low-powered maximum 250-watt electric bikes.
Queensland welcomed 2.2 million international visitors in the year ending June 2025.
North Korea requires people riding bicycles to have passed a road safety test at their local police station and display a registration plate, and New Jersey this year became the first jurisdiction to mandate a driver’s licence for a standard e-bike.
Research from Denmark shows e-bike riders are more likely to follow traffic laws and are more safety-oriented than conventional cyclists, and University of Queensland researchers have pointed out legal e-bikes that meet the EN15194 standard are limited to 250 watts – roughly the power an avid cyclist could generate with their body.
“Professional cyclists easily produce well over 400 watts,” they wrote, in a piece in The Conversation.
The licence requirement would make it impossible for children and adults with disabilities and older people who do not hold a car licence to ride a pedal-assist e-bike.
Almost all bicycle infrastructure in Queensland is shared paths, meaning a commute on an e-bike might soon take twice as long at the jogging speed of 10km/h versus an average speed of 20km/h.
TMR’s guideline for speed on shared paths says: “a bicycle can become unstable at speeds below 11km/h” and cyclists can travel at speeds between 15-25km/h on well-designed paths with “minimum risk or decrease in amenity to people walking”.
Transport Minister Brent Mickelberg is expected to speak to journalists on Tuesday morning.
More to come
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Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
