Hundreds of riders will roll across the Story Bridge’s traffic lanes in peak hour on Thursday night on the eve of a report expected to green-light a raft of restrictions on low-speed electric bicycles.
In response to concerns about safety issues with e-scooters and high-powered electric motorbikes, the Queensland government held a 10-month inquiry, with an LNP-dominated committee delivering recommendations for a ban on under-16s on legal e-bikes, speed limits of 10km/h on paths and a requirement for riders to hold a driver’s licence.
The government then produced a bill that adopted the recommendations, which was then referred back to the same committee that conducted the e-mobility inquiry.
However, people have warned the changes will exclude many law-abiding riders who cannot obtain a vehicle licence, including older people, people living with a disability and younger teenagers.
During parliamentary briefings, TMR officials said there might be “options to look at how we make sure we do not exclude anyone”, and the government might attempt to carve out exemptions.
It was also revealed the bill’s requirement for legal e-bikes – which are limited to 250 watts and assistance while pedalling up to 25km/h – to conform to a very recent update to an international standard, EN15194:2017, would make almost all existing e-bikes in Queensland illegal.
In response, TMR said the intent of the legislation was to capture the standards and not specifically the version that came into effect in 2023, promising to “look into that issue”.
However, the state government has pushed a hard line on e-mobility, and when announcing the measures, Premier David Crisafulli promised “nation-leading laws”.
Transport Minister Brent Mickelberg has previously defended the licence requirement, saying people must be medically fit to drive.
“I acknowledge that will disadvantage some people who currently use these devices [and] are unable to drive,” he said in March.
If licence laws are introduced, Queensland would become the second jurisdiction in the world to mandate a driver’s licence for riding a standard e-bike, after New Jersey. North Korea asks riders to get a licence to ride a bicycle.
Police Assistant Commissioner Rhys Wildman told the committee requiring riders to hold a driver’s licence made their job easier as it allowed officers to quickly identify people.
Licences and age restrictions will not be introduced for standard bicycles.
Protesters will ride across the Story Bridge on Thursday from 5.30pm, leaving from Martin Street in Fortitude Valley and riding to Mowbray Park in East Brisbane.
The route was chosen to highlight the choice riders would face to either travel at 10km/h on the bridge’s shared paths or opt for high-speed motor vehicle traffic, and it follows a similar protest ride last month.
Story Bridge Active Travel Alliance spokeswoman Kathryn Good said the ride was the community’s last chance to make their voices heard before the committee handed down its report, due by Friday.
“This so-called ‘personal choice’ is between riding at jogging speed on shared paths or mixing with fast-moving traffic on the road,” she said.
“In reality, that means choosing between impractical, unsafe or inaccessible options, or giving up entirely and getting back in a car.”
The laws will allow e-scooters to travel on any road up to 60km/h, instead of the current 50km/h, to “support rider choice and reduce traffic on footpaths”, despite being limited to a new maximum design speed of 25km/h.
The explanatory notes say the speed limit of 10km/h on footpaths and shared paths “may deter riders from using these environments in areas with high pedestrian activity or where high-quality active transport infrastructure is available, encouraging riders to select routes that better support higher speeds”.
However, in a committee briefing, Transport and Main Roads deputy director-general Andrew Mahon insisted the bill did not intend to push anyone onto roads.
“That is still a personal choice by the rider of the bike or the device as to where they ride,” he said.
Advocates have pointed out almost all the high-quality active transport infrastructure in Brisbane is shared paths.
A Transport and Main Roads guideline on shared paths says a bicycle can become unstable at speeds below 11km/h and on well-designed paths people riding bikes can travel 15-25km/h with minimum risk or negative impacts for walkers.
Arkadiy Matsekh, a scientist and director from Foucault Dynamics, said bicycle stability was governed by the physics of two-wheeled vehicles, which had not changed since the 19th century, despite the invention of e-bikes.
“Legal e-bikes with 200-250W motors are fundamentally indistinguishable from conventional bicycles in their handling, dynamics and kinematics,” he said.
“The additional mass of the motor and battery, if anything, makes low-speed stability harder, not easier.”
TMR suggested three organisations supported 10km/h limits – E-Bike Safety Australia, Australian Medical Association Queensland and Vision Australia.
However, E Bike Safety Australia said their submission related to the 25km/h limit for electric assistance, and they did not agree with the 10km/h proposal.
The AMAQ’s submission said the government should “review existing speed limits to ensure they are fit for purpose” and noted they were aware “other advocacy bodies hold concerns about the proposed amendments”.
Vision Australia said e-mobility devices should not be allowed on footpaths at all, and argued that even 10km/h was a safety risk for people who were blind or had low vision.
The committee is due to hand down its report on Friday, and the government wants the laws to take effect on July 1.
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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
