Mastodawn

A rant about electric bicycles:

* For e-bikes to be viable car replacements they need cargo-carrying and hill-climb capacity. The practicality test for an e-bike is to carry four bags of grocieries, or a child.

* The 250W and 20km/h limit for unlicensed bicycles is *far* too low. Human cyclists comfortably exceed this in both power and speed leading to e-bikes holding up traffic. When. I ride the bikeways, human-powered traffic cruises at around 35 km/h.

* The "you must pedal or the motor stops" requirement is some Calvinist bullshit.

* The perl-clutching "but the children" scare in the news about "unlicensed motorbikes" HAS to be some kind of car-industry astroturfing. From what I can see on the bikeways, commuter e-bikes and scooters are HOT items and anyone with a head can see a dent in vehicle sales coming. Users LOVE this emerging mobility sector.

* I work in an industrial area with zero public transport service. I observe large numbers of workers riding scooters in the direction of the nearest train station.

* If governments *really* want to stick to the 250w 25km/h bullshit for "bicycles" then we need URGENT legislation to create a vehicle class for say 1000W 45km/h vehicles. The Australia post electric delivery tricycles are a worked example of the practicality of this class; I don't hear *anyone* having a meltdown about "dangerous monster tricycles on our footpaths".

#MicroMobility #ebikes #solarpunk

ETA: absurd panic-fueled legislation from the fossil-fuel captured Literal Nazi Party: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-03-24/queensland-ebike-escooter-ban-children-licence-reforms/106487910

E-bike and e-scooter riders to require a licence in Qld under proposed laws

A raft of new rules around the use of e-mobility devices will be ushered in after the Queensland government accepted the recommendations from a parliamentary inquiry.

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Jesse 7h ago

@Unixbigot I think the 25km/h assist limit is important. The issue is that what ever the maximum speed available is then that is what the average speed will be. On a push bike it's possible to get up to 30km/h on the flat but you'll get very sweaty and waste a lot of physical effort if you need to slow down all the time
This means that average cycling speed is more like 15-20km/h which is a good speed for safe interactions with pedestrians and other bicycle riders of all ages without the need for traffic management.

E-bicycles are great, but having a lot of people riding 45km/h e-motorbikes on shared paths and places where children ride to school isn't great.

I want a bicycle city not a motorbike city.

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"Musty Bits" McGee

@jessta @Unixbigot im with you on 25, maybe 30 max. my take is that to cycle unassisted at that speed you usually have to have yknow, cycled a bit - which means you learn the handling and safety. people without that blasting around is worrying for me, i dont want to get collected by someone (and with a substantially heavier bike!)

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"Musty Bits" McGee 6h ago

@jessta @Unixbigot PS: in Asia the petrol mopeds just go wherever the fuck including cycle paths and it's ...not great.