Eamon Waterford opinion: Why I can’t support the Coalition’s e-bike licencing scheme
The NSW Opposition wants to have number plates and rego plates on e-bikes. It might sound appealing, but once you get into the practicalities of it, it won’t work, writes Eamon Waterford.
I was at the park on the weekend for a nine-year-old’s birthday. As our small children played, four teenagers were fanging it around on motorbikes masquerading as e-bikes – no helmets, no pedals, 40km an hour – it was dangerous and it shouldn’t happen.
It’s also already completely illegal, and that’s why I can’t support the NSW Opposition’s proposal for a licencing scheme.
Under the proposal they’re putting forward, e-bikes would need number plates and registration.
That might sound appealing but once you get into the practicalities of it, it should be clear why it won’t work.
The core of the problem is illegally-designed e-bikes that go too fast, being used in illegal ways – none of those bikes will be registered, or put a licence plate on, so the only people forced to go through the proposed additional red tape would be people doing the right thing.
The deeper issue is it fundamentally misunderstands what riding a bike means to a young person.
Electric or not, riding a bike is one of the simplest forms of independence a child can have. For many, it’s a practical way to get to sport, TAFE or a part-time job without having to rely on a parent who isn’t available at 4pm on a weekday. For kids without reliable public transport links – especially in Western Sydney – it’s independence, access and economic opportunity.
Riding builds confidence and gets children active. In a generation grappling with screen addiction, loneliness and sedentary lifestyles, riding to a friend’s house or the park is not a threat to be regulated, it’s exactly what we want for our kids.
What a licencing scheme would do is punish people who are doing the right thing. At a time when governments want young people to get off their screens, the Opposition’s proposal will make it harder – forcing a nanny-state scheme onto people’s lives unnecessarily.
It’s unnecessary because it’s already illegal to ride an e-bike with a motor that doesn’t cut out at 25 km/h. It is illegal to ride a souped-up e-bike. It’s illegal to ride e-bikes on the footpath once you’re 16-years-old, or to ride without a helmet.
The rules exist. The powers are there. Instead of making onerous new rules that will only tangentially address the issues, we should focus on making the current laws work.
Kids are not a public-order problem to be brought under administrative control. We want them to ride responsibly, but they also deserve to experience the small freedoms that make growing up memorable and meaningful.
In the end, the question is simple: do we want to raise a generation of children who feel free to explore, active in their communities, confident in their abilities, or a generation taught that movement is something to be licensed, monitored and punished?
Let kids ride. Let parents parent. And let’s stop regulating the joy out of childhood.
Eamon Waterford, CEO of the Committee for Sydney
