{"id":737173,"date":"2026-06-15T02:15:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T02:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/737173\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T02:15:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T02:15:16","slug":"vicious-cycles-or-transport-revolution-the-ebike-battle-raging-in-queensland-queensland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/737173\/","title":{"rendered":"Vicious cycles or transport revolution? The ebike battle raging in Queensland | Queensland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paula Sharam had a nightmare last week: a thief stole her ebike.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was telling my granddaughter and she said: \u2018You love that bike more than us!\u2019,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Sharam laughs, but then, in earnest, says that her two-person, fat-tyred ebike has changed her life. She picks up her grandkids with it. Loads it up with groceries for the shopping run. Commutes to the fashion shop she runs.<\/p>\n

These days, Sharam says she only really takes her SUV out every few weeks, when she has to pop into Brisbane, about 65km south of her Bribie Island home.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the island, I don\u2019t use my car,\u201d she says. \u201cI just use my bike.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sharam\u2019s bad dream occurred on the eve of the Queensland government\u2019s passing of what it described as a nation-leading \u201ccrackdown\u201d<\/a> on \u201cdangerous e-scooter and e-bike behaviours\u201d. As it turned out, her worst fears weren\u2019t realised.<\/p>\n

She has a driving licence. Her bike has a maximum unassisted speed of 25km\/h and is compliant with European product safety standards. All of these are among the requirements for ebike riders under the new laws.<\/p>\n

\u2018I avoid people on the footpath like the plague,\u2019 Sharam says. \u2018It\u2019s common sense.\u2019 Photograph: David Kelly\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

At 70, she is comfortably above the 12\u201317 age bracket at which e-mobility will now require parental supervision. And Sharam says she already complies with the new 12km\/h speed limit near pedestrians.<\/p>\n

\u201cI avoid people on the footpath like the plague,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s common sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Sharam is concerned the added regulation and \u201cdemonisation\u201d of ebikes will preclude or discourage others from enjoying their benefits.<\/p>\n

Which makes her among the more measured critics of laws that have come under blistering attack from all sides.<\/p>\n

Fears of \u2018complete embarrassment\u2019<\/p>\n

The Australian Medical Association\u2019s Queensland branch says the government\u2019s backpedalling of its original proposal \u2013 to ban people under 16 using the devices<\/a> \u2013 was a shocking \u201cbetrayal of children\u2019s safety\u201d that left doctors \u201cstruggling to see\u201d the point of the government\u2019s 10-month long e-mobility inquiry.<\/p>\n

More than 1,200 submissions were made to that inquiry, and they show just how deep divisions run on what advocates refer to as a burgeoning \u201crevolution\u201d in transport \u2013 but what critics say is unleashing \u201cchaos on our streets and footpaths\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

There are many aggrieved pedestrians and push-bike riders, some of whom attested to life-altering injuries they say were caused by e-mobility devices.<\/p>\n

On the other side were the many advocates, among them Engineers Australia, who saw in the \u201crapid uptake\u201d of e-mobility a \u201cchallenge\u201d \u2013 but one that offered a \u201conce in a generation opportunity\u201d to embrace new ways of travelling around cities at a time when the transport network is \u201cunder enormous pressure\u201d.<\/p>\n

Others, like the state\u2019s tourism council, pitched a vision of Queensland<\/a> as a \u201cnational leader in active transport\u201d when it hosts the world for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.<\/p>\n

Instead, the Queensland University of Technology\u2019s Dr Mark Limb tells Guardian Australia the state will now \u201cprobably have the most hostile laws for ebike usage anywhere in the world\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not aware of any other jurisdiction, in the free world at least, that has a licensing scheme to ride a bicycle, for example,\u201d the urban planning researcher says.<\/p>\n

\"DozensDozens of young ebike riders descend on Sydney golf course in viral rideout \u2013 video<\/p>\n

Limb says it comes at a time when active transport desperately needs to be fast-tracked in the car-centric south-east corner, where about 4 million of the state\u2019s 5.7 million people live.<\/p>\n

That region could add the population of another Brisbane to its rapidly expanding suburbs over the next 30 years, Limb says.<\/p>\n

He says e-mobility was \u201cmeant to be the answer\u201d to the region\u2019s natural barriers to having more people leaving their cars at home: hills, heat and humidity. It could also showcase south-east Queensland\u2019s natural beauty and outdoor lifestyle to international visitors, he says.<\/p>\n

He fears \u201ccomplete embarrassment\u201d at the Games, with visitors stuck in traffic on ugly main roads or fined for using a hire scooter without a licence.<\/p>\n

However, the problem for e-mobility advocates like Limb and Sharam is that not everyone rides like a fashion-loving grandmother on a laid-back island.<\/p>\n

\u2018Too afraid to ride\u2019<\/p>\n

Sophia Tyrrell lives at Palm Beach on the Gold Coast, on the other end of the state\u2019s south-east region from Sharam. Her children \u2013 River, 8, and Kai, 6 \u2013 attend a primary school 2km away.<\/p>\n

When they rode their push-bikes, the school drop-off took about 10 minutes.<\/p>\n

That was until November, when River was knocked off her bicycle by an ebike rider.<\/p>\n

Between Tyrrell\u2019s home and the primary school is a high school \u2013 to which hundreds of students ride ebikes and e-scooters. She says many of them illegally modify their rides to reach high speeds, or ride legal devices dangerously.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, River wasn\u2019t seriously injured. But the many accidents and bad behaviour they witnessed every day upset Tyrrell\u2019s children.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can ride and we would ride every day to school,\u201d Tyrrell says. \u201cBut my kids are too afraid to ride after everything they\u2019ve seen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Instead, she drops them off in her SUV \u2013 a journey that can take about 20 minutes in peak hour congestion.<\/p>\n

Tyrrell runs a hair salon, and when e-devices first hit the footpaths, they were the biggest topic among her customers.<\/p>\n

One client, a 67-year-old woman, needed reconstructive surgery on her shoulder after being struck by two boys on an ebike on the footpath, Tyrrell says. Another was left with a fractured toe after being hit by an e-scooter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have got to a position where we are afraid to walk on our footpaths,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Tyrrell says the new laws are \u201cgreat\u201d on paper. But she doubts police have the resources to enforce new e-mobility infringements \u2013 and fears the laws will amount to regulation in name alone.<\/p>\n

\u2018To be out in the fresh air and just being able to have that mobility to just go anywhere is great,\u2019 Sharam says. Photograph: David Kelly\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

\u201cI would remove [e-mobility devices] from the footpath and put them on the roads where they belong,\u201d she says. \u201cBecause, for me, they are motorbikes, only silent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Limb disputes that categorisation. Most ebikes, he says, are more like push-bikes.<\/p>\n

But on other key points there is more widespread agreement. E-mobility devices with throttle acceleration that can travel at high speeds unassisted by pedalling are more like motorbikes, he says \u2013 but these were already illegal.<\/p>\n

Queensland is experiencing conflict on its footpaths \u2013 but that conflict, he says, is a \u201cdamning indictment\u201d on the poor state or absence of footpaths and a safe and dense network of active transport routes.<\/p>\n

Tyrrell says her problem is not with ebikes and e-scooters per se and says, if given the space and laws to be used responsibly, they could help make her life better \u2013 even if she never uses one.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe traffic here on the Gold Coast where we live is so horrendous,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to expand the footpath, the bike lanes, and all the infrastructure, because the population is exploding here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sharam agrees e-mobility devices could lead to fewer cars on the road, fewer emissions and less power consumed. Which, she says, would do more than benefit the environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be out in the fresh air and just being able to have that mobility to just go anywhere is great,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it would just make people happier.\u201d<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s transport minister, Brent Mickelberg, says Queensland\u2019s \u201ctough new laws\u201d were \u201cbased on extensive community and expert consultation\u201d and \u201cstrike the right balance between keeping Queenslanders safe from those doing the wrong thing, while backing those who do the right thing\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe promised to deliver nation-leading laws about who can ride, what they can ride, where they can ride, and how fast \u2013 and our laws do exactly that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paula Sharam had a nightmare last week: a thief stole her ebike. \u201cI was telling my granddaughter and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":737174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-737173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=737173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/737174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=737173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=737173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=737173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}