E-Bikes: Convenience, Annoyance, or Menace?

Are E-Bikes a Convenience, an Annoyance, or a Menace?

Yes, yes they are.

The answer depends on your point-of-view. If you are a e-bike user, such as a commuter, recreational traveler, or deliverista, it must be a convenience (otherwise why do it). If you are the consumer of warmed over restaurant meals delivered by e-bikes, you probably agree. But, if you are not, the answer is less clear.

E-bike (used for deliveries on Train (T8 line) inconveniencing those who want to exit train. That big battery there is not overly reassuring either. It’s an ORCA bike and certified, but nevertheless.

As a pedestrian, I find e-bikes being ridden on the footpaths (or “shared paths”) at a minimum an annoyance, even if the rider is legal and under 16, which in my experience they mostly are.

I find the collection of shared e-bikes abandoned on footpaths even more of an annoyance due to its frequency.

A collection of shared e-bikes at the top of the hill in my suburb. Clearly the user is happy to walk downhill to the station, but takes the e-bike uphill. This is easily fixed with prices (free trips to return bikes to train stations), but the world’s best and brightest cannot be fussed to actually solve that in their app, and so periodically send a truck around to collect these bikes and reposition them at the train station. Progress!

I am not alone in not being thrilled with all these new e-bikes, one only needs to see the Letters to the Editor of the local St. George Leader for examples of e-bikes being ridden in what-to-fore were pedestrian spaces to see the issue writ large.

• Close call with e-bike for Cronulla man recovering from shoulder surgery

• Stabbing victim hospitalised in Bondi Beach after alleged teen machete attack triggered by e-bike argument: The argument is believed to have been sparked by e-bikes.

I see drivers complaining about e-bikes darting in and out-of-traffic. One only needs to read the articles (and comments) in the Daily Telegraph¹ or other local media to see that lots of people feel that way. The youth have organised themselves for fun days out, which not everyone appreciates.

• Hoons in death-defying stunts on Sydney motorway - A group of unregistered dirtbike riders have been caught undertaking death-defying stunts on one of Sydney’s busiest freeways, popping wheelies and weaving between motorists.

• Popular Sydney golf course vandalised by e-bikes

I think something needs to be done about the growing number of e-bikes, especially the high powered ones, on the roads and especially footpaths. I think the number of deaths and injuries per km driven on e-bikes puts them in the same arena as automobiles in terms of safety implications, and dismissing this by just looking at the numerator (fatalities), without also considering the denominator (exposure, such as km ridden) is misleading. Unfortunately, we don’t actually know the denominator, though we can surmise it is still much lower, though rising fast.

An obvious, first-best solution that most professionals and bicycle advocates support is to build more bike lanes and lower speed limits on local roads. I agree with this.

I think mandatory training and licensure is probably safer than its absence, and enforcement of traffic rules is even more critical. People with drivers licenses should not be immune from e-bike licensure, driving a car and an e-bike are not the same thing. The NSW government is doing something, perhaps it should do more.

• Regulation on e-bike power is underway:

  Under the standard, e-bikes must have a maximum power output of 250 watts and power assistance must cut out at 25km/hr.

• Age limits are probably coming in too.

• Illegal e-bikes will be seized and crushed.

Another obvious solution is to take parking spaces from cars for the corralled storage of shared bikes off the footpaths, with geofenced enforcement on the part of the bikeshare operators. Sadly, after some 8 years of shared bikes in the City of Sydney, this has yet to happen. E-bikes have popped up in Bayside Council in recent months. No serious effort has been made to corral them in Bayside either.

A third obvious solution is to give the youth some place to act out that doesn’t annoy the oldth. I agree with this, but I believe the whole point of most youth acting out is to annoy the oldth, so good luck with that.

HOWEVER, we have not actually built a comprehensive bike lane network in Sydney. The all-powerful bike lobby has yet to deliver for us. This leaves us in the realm of the second best: in the absence of bike lanes, how do we regulate this new vehicle type for the good of all in the here and now. When cars came in more than 100 years ago, we regulated pedestrian movement in the name of safety, but in reality for the convenience of cars. This greatly reduced pedestrian access. We are at risk of doing the same today, converting pedestrian-only footpaths to shared paths so that fast electrically powered bicycles driven by adults are legal in even more pedestrian spaces, discouraging more people from walking. I hope we can do better.

FYI

• BicycleNSW position

• WalkSydney Position

FIN

1. Yes, I know. Nevertheless, the readers and commentators are people who vote.