Car speed limits should be dropped to 30km/h in city centres and bikes be allowed on footpaths, a sweeping parliamentary report into electric bikes and scooters has recommended.
As part of 34 recommendations to improve cycling throughout the state, a NSW parliamentary inquiry into the use of e-scooters, e-bikes and related mobility options has found while fat bikes are of particular safety concern, e-bikes generally are a legitimate method of transport.
E-scooters lined up in Melbourne in December.Credit: Simon Schluter
It recommends reducing road speed limits to 30km/h in city centres and high streets around childcare centres, playgrounds and healthcare centres, and to 40km/h in all other areas.
Lowering speed limits on roads where cyclists are present – already a common practice across the state – significantly reduces the risk of injury or death in collisions, the report’s authors said.
They also recommended electric scooters, which have surged in popularity but remain illegal, be legalised and their users – along with e-bike and regular bicycle riders – be allowed to ride on the pavements, provided they do not go more than 15km/h and always give way to pedestrians.
As cities around the world have grappled with how to deal with the convenient but occasionally dangerous devices, the NSW government will now consider whether to agree to the recommendations or follow the likes of Melbourne and Paris and maintain a ban on them.
The report’s findings:
- The proliferation of fat bikes is raising serious safety concerns for pedestrians, and ambiguity about rules and definitions hinders effective regulation.
- Implementing a “bureaucratic” registration process for bike riders would limit accessibility of e-bikes and e-scooters, particularly for low income earners.
- There is a “disconnect” between the claims of share bike operators relating to parking and management of their bikes and the reality on the ground.
“The issues we are seeing with e-mobility devices are not so much about the devices themselves – they are signs that the rules and the way we enforce them are outdated or ineffective,” Greens MLC Cate Faehrmann, the inquiry chair, wrote in the report.
The committee, made up of members from across the political spectrum, were unanimous in supporting the expansion of shared and private electric transport devices – but singled out fat bikes as causing serious safety concerns.
Share-bike operators came under fire for a “disconnect” between their claims about managing parking and the reality on the ground. The report recommended establishing designated parking areas for e-mobility vehicles, “ideally no more than 200 metres apart in high-density areas”.
Food delivery services such as Uber Eats and Easi should also be forced to provide data about safety incidents with their e-bike drivers, the report said.
The report recommends greater regulation of share bikes, with designated parking in high-density areas.Credit: Rhett Wyman
Bicycle NSW chief executive Peter McLean said the recommendations were “really positive”. “The horse has bolted [on e-bikes and e-scooters],” he said. “It’s now about how we respond proactively and sensitively to that.”
Will Peters, the senior regional director of the country’s most popular bike-share platform, Lime, said the company agreed change was needed.
“We have grown rapidly but without a secure regulatory environment,” he said. “This model doesn’t work for anybody in any industry, so we are very welcoming and excited following the inquiry announcement.”
Sydney was the third-busiest market in Lime’s global network at the weekend, behind London and Paris.
A spokesperson for Transport for NSW said it welcomed the findings of the inquiry and would carefully consider the recommendations.
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