The law will include things like:

• 1 0 km/h speed limit on all footpaths and shared paths (which makes up over 90% of the “bike paths” in Brisbane)—that’s slower than a jogging speed, and TMR’s own guidelines say it’s unsafe to have to ride below 11 km/h because bikes become less stable
• Age limit of 16, cutting off the ability of kids to ride to school
• Require a driver’s licence to ride an ebike (adding a few hundred dollars every few years and removing the ability of people with disabilities that prevent them from driving from being able to ride a bike)
• Ban all ebikes not compliant with a specific version of the legal specification that only came out a couple of years ago (and which one newspaper report found was basically impossible to buy. The 99 Bikes store they checked only sold one model that complied with that spec, and it was a child’s bike…)

There’s a few good things in the bill too, like

• Give police the power to impound and destroy non-compliant bikes
• Power to charge parents of kids who ride illegal e-motorbikes

but it’s mostly really bad. The fact that most of our footpaths and shared paths are empty most of the time, but it would be completely illegal to ride a bike even as fast as a slow jogger just shows the degree to which this is not a well-intentioned law.

If you ride an ebike, know someone who does, or just like the idea that people should be allowed to ride responsibly, I’d encourage you to make a submission to the inquiry describing your personal experience and saying you don’t approve of the bill. You can find out more information about the bill and how to format a submission here: https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/Work-of-Committees/Committees/Committee-Details?cid=272&id=8575 or by checking out Space4cyclingbne, Brisbane CBD BUG, or Brisbane West BUG on Facebook, or Bicycle Queensland (on their website or on FB).

Or email the committee directly here: SDIWC@parliament.qld.gov.au