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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Max Lee 17h ago

@Unixbigot An Germany we already have classes between unlicensed peddle assist bikes and full car/motorbikes with "Mofa" (literally short for motorized bycicle until 25km/h with a short easy courso and test) and "Mopeds" (bikes until 45km/h). Might be worth looking at for legislation.

Granted the speed limitations of mofas make them kinda pointless, and people are know to both tune mofas as well as peddle assist bikes to drive faster. (Especially on bycicles it's hard to see if someone is actually driving by peddling or by their assist motor and I'le never heard of any police controcs regarding that where I live...)

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Kit Bashir 17h ago

@the_moep Mopeds are explicitly illegal here. It's unclear what kinds of light lightweight electric vehicles could be registered as an ordinary motorcycle (which costs over $600 per year.)

https://www.qld.gov.au/transport/safety/rules/noncompliant

Vehicles and devices you cannot use on the road

Find out what vehicles and devices cannot be used on Queensland roads.

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Max Lee

@Unixbigot It's interesting that this page seems to limit itself to combustion engines when eletric motors that reach equally high speeds have existed for decades. (Also I wonder if eltric-motor powered longboards were actually illegal when they were popular a couple years ago)