What is more significant is the seriousness of the accidents. Four children have died on e-bikes in Australia in the past four months. Our stats are a lagging indicator of what is happening overseas. In the US, where e-bike sales quadrupled between 2019 and 2022, bike-related injuries increased by a factor of 10 and head injuries by a factor of 49. The chance of a pedal bike injury being fatal is 0.3 per cent; on an e-bike it is 11 per cent, according to the Light Electric Vehicle Association as quoted in The New York Times. In New York City in 2023, of 30 bike accident fatalities, 23 were on e-bikes. Once Australia has the data, the arguments for reform will be even more compelling.
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The NSW proposals to de-power e-bikes are only incremental. Other jurisdictions around the world have required registration and licensing, lower age limits, compulsory safety courses, limits on battery power, banning apps and other devices designed to unlock speed caps, reclassification of e-bikes as motorcycles, and outright bans. (Beijing banned e-bikes completely in 2002 after a sixfold rise in fatalities, but lifted the ban four years later.) Also under discussion is the creation of dedicated lanes for e-bikes.
There is energetic pursuit of reform in Australia, but it’s commonly agreed that enforcement is lacking. Last month, NSW Police’s Operation Trance resulted in 176 infringement notices and 111 cautions in Sutherland, St George, South Sydney and the eastern beaches. The fine for illegal e-bike use has been raised to $818, and Assistant Commissioner David Driver warned parents: “If you are considering buying an e-bike for Christmas, make sure it complies with NSW law. Don’t get pressured by your children, peers or salespeople into buying the most powerful bike.”
All of this is very well, but in the unformed mind, knowing you are breaking the law is half the fun. Talking parents into buying a $4000 bike is one thing, but the icing on the cake is being clever enough to unlock the speed limit and ride to a party with three friends. Pushing limits is kind of the point of adolescence. Scaring adult drivers or pedestrians is a bonus. Technology has put lethal weapons into children’s hands, and the world is belatedly waking up to the lethality of e-bikes.
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The zeal being put into e-bike law reform means nothing without compliance, respect and commonsense. I have the feeling that we are about five years away from responding to a rise in fatalities with Draconian measures including prohibition. A good way of avoiding that outcome would be self-education – a way for young riders to spread the word among themselves about the seriousness of injuries, the price their friends have had to pay for a moment of inattention or recklessness. If only there were direct channels of information-sharing through which under-16s could achieve this.
Malcolm Knox is a journalist, author and columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald.
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