E-bikes shouldn’t be banned. The illegal ones are already illegal

7 hours ago 6

Don’t ban e-bikes. The illegal ones are already illegal, and they’re ruining it for everyone else.

There’s a lot of angst about teens hooning dangerously on “e-bikes”, particularly on the Gold and Sunshine coasts, and I often see people zooming around Brisbane’s streets, bike and shared paths doing wheelies and filming each other.

These are not e-bikes – they are unregistered and illegal motorbikes.

The narrative of “youths on dangerous e-bikes” muddies the waters when many people are quick to hate on cyclists and e-scooter riders.

For Harriet Muir, a legal e-bike is a car replacement, allowing her to slash CO₂ emissions, save money on petrol, get exercise, and avoid traffic congestion, with the battery making hills a breeze.

When Muir, a mum-of-two, moved back to Brisbane and did not have a car, she decided to hire an e-cargo bike from Lug + Carrie.

“We were hooked pretty quickly, and we still don’t have a car two years later,” she said.

Harriet Muir rides an e-cargo bike in Brisbane.

Muir, who now works for the company, said her e-bike made school and daycare drop-off, running errands, playground trips and getting to work easy.

“I can fit like four bags of groceries and two schoolbags easily on the bike with the kids,” she said.

But if you see a bike travelling on the flat or uphill for a long period, and the rider is not pedalling, or it looks a bit like a bicycle but sounds like a motorbike, chances are it is illegal.

To be used in public, an e-bike must be predominantly pedal-powered, with a small electric motor providing assistance only, up to 250 watts, and the motor must cut out at 25km/h.

Illegal motorbikes in Queensland, which some have been calling e-bikes. These cannot be ridden on public roads or paths. Excerpt from a written brief to Queensland’s e-mobility inquiry by Transport and Main Roads.

A motorised bike cannot be ridden on a public road or paths if it is petrol-powered, if the electric motor helps you travel faster than 25km/h, if the bike has non-functioning pedals or if you twist a throttle and ride it only using the motor.

Geoff Magoffin, from Transport and Main Roads, told a parliamentary committee he was not aware of significant safety issues with legal e-bikes, but thousands of illegal e-bikes were flooding into Australia.

“These are marketed as e-bikes but are in fact motorcycles,” he said.

“The resulting use of these dangerous and illegal motorcycles, often by children, is generating significant community concern, and it is only a matter of time before riders and other users are killed.”

So how are these illegal bikes getting onto our streets?

While you can’t ride them on the road or paths, non-compliant bikes can be ridden on private property, and it is not illegal to sell them.

I can hop online and buy a 10,000-watt e-dirt bike and ignore that little note that says it is not street-legal and designed for off-road use.

The Maroons this month posted images of the team riding Fatfish Biggie fat tyre e-bikes, which have a top speed of 45km/h and are capable of peak outputs of 1080 watts, at Camp Maroon, which is private property. They are being auctioned.

There are loopholes in federal import laws, after a mandatory import approval was removed in 2021 and replaced with an optional advisory notice, with non-compliant devices imported without the same level of scrutiny from Border Force.

Bicycle Queensland says non-compliant bikes are marketed to teenagers and young adults, creating an “uncomfortable and sometimes dangerous situation in which illegal devices are ridden by unskilled (or irresponsible) riders who mix with pedestrians on footpaths and shared paths”.

About eight in 10 children walked or rode bikes to school in the 1970s, but now 74 per cent of primary school-aged children are driven.

It’s great to see young people outside, but it’d be better if they were travelling independently and having fun on a legal bike.

Officers allege the 19-year-old was seen riding an illegal bike down Elizabeth Street in Brisbane.

They’re unlicensed, unregistered and uninsured, and riders are liable for damages, including injury to third parties, caused by crashes in which they are at fault.

Last week, police charged a 19-year-old who was allegedly riding on Elizabeth Street, with an officer telling him: “You’re aware this is a trail bike that you’re not able to register, therefore not allowed to ride it on the road?”

Confusion about the law and rapid proliferation makes it difficult to put the genie back in the bottle.

It must be hard for police to quickly assess whether e-bikes comply with standard EN15194, if they are illegal or maybe a dirt bike able to be registered.

More policing of reckless and anti-social behaviour – not just helmets and speed on Brisbane’s inner-city bridges – an import ban, consistent national rules, and an education campaign is needed.