‘If they want us on the roads, we’re getting on the roads’: Riders plot peak-hour protest

E-bikes and e-scooters in their hundreds will swarm the Story Bridge’s traffic lanes during peak hour on Wednesday as riders protest against the Queensland government’s proposed laws to push the devices off paths and onto roads.

Following a 10-month inquiry, Transport Minister Brent Mickelberg introduced laws that would ban under-16s from the devices, require riders to hold a car licence, and introduce a 10km/h speed limit on footpaths and shared paths.

Kathryn Good, from the Story Bridge Active Travel Alliance, said lawmakers were trying to put the brakes on everyday riders instead of building safe infrastructure.

“If they want us on the roads, we’re getting on the roads,” she said.

The group organised the snap protest for Wednesday evening, with e-bike and bicycle riders encouraged to join the ride during peak hour, across the Story Bridge to the Queensland Parliament.

The bill’s explanatory notes say the 10km/h limit – which is slower than jogging speed or a toddler on a balance bike – might deter riders from paths with high pedestrian activity or where “high-quality active transport infrastructure is available”, encouraging riders to select routes that support higher speeds.

However, riders argued that network did not exist.

About 90 per cent of Queensland’s off-road bicycle infrastructure – the “quality active transport infrastructure”, as opposed to a bicycle merely painted on the road surface – are paths shared with pedestrians.

There are very few “bicycle-only” or “pedestrian-only” paths in the state.

Good said most riders did not have a choice between a separated bikeway and a footpath.

“It’s a choice between a footpath and fast, hostile traffic,” she said.

Organisers said the Story Bridge route was chosen to highlight the choice legal pedal-assist bike riders would have between riding at 10km/h on its footpaths, or on the road with traffic.

In a guideline for shared paths published online, Transport and Main Roads noted that bicycles could become unstable to ride at speeds below 11km/h.

Bicycle Queensland chief executive Matt Burke has thrown support behind the protest ride, encouraging people to head along if they were concerned about the “whole mess” that came out of the parliamentary inquiry.

“I will be there, and we will be joining this,” he said.

Riders of non-electric bicycles would be exempt from most of the new rules, which would apply to people riding e-scooters, and e-bikes that only receive motorised assistance up to 25km/h while pedalling and are limited to 250 watts.

E-scooter riders would be allowed on any road with a speed limit up to 60km/h, instead of the current 50km/h, to reduce traffic on footpaths, meaning it would be legal to ride in traffic on the Story Bridge, Turbot Street, Gympie Road, Kelvin Grove Road, Moggill Road and Coronation Drive – although they would be limited to 25km/h.

The laws have not yet passed, so e-scooter riders would be unable to join Wednesday night’s event on the 60km/h six-lane Story Bridge.

The inquiry was launched following concern about injuries and deaths, which data shows were mostly caused by high-powered electric motorbikes which were already illegal to ride on public roads and paths, or illegal e-scooter use, such as speeding, drink-riding or not wearing a helmet.

The Story Bridge’s footpaths were suddenly closed due to safety concerns in March 2025, prompting advocates to call for a traffic lane to be repurposed for active transport, while a court ruled a protest in the form of a march which would have shut down all six lanes of traffic on the bridge could not go ahead.

The Story Bridge Active Travel Alliance then ran a bike bus – a group of cyclists riding together for safety – to help people commute across a traffic lane on weekdays until one footpath reopened after 212 days with temporary decking.

The critical mass protest will operate as a legal group ride, with participants following road rules.

They will meet at Raymond Park, Kangaroo Point, at 5pm on Wednesday, for a 5.30pm ride to Parliament via the Story Bridge.

Critical mass, a worldwide phenomenon, started in 1992 in San Francisco, where hundreds of bicycle riders travelled as a group for safety to “reclaim the streets” and call for more active travel infrastructure.