E-bike licensing risks derailing active transport

Bicycle Queensland has reviewed the leaked recommendations from the Queensland Parliamentary Inquiry into e-mobility safety and use. BQ believes that the proposals to require a licence to ride an e-bike are poorly thought through and risk undermining cycling and micromobility across the state and potentially all of Australia. 

The leaked recommendations include banning children under 16 from using e-bikes and requiring riders aged 16 and over to hold at least a learner driver’s licence. 

Bicycle Queensland Director of Advocacy Andrew Demack said the proposal was a blunt policy response that fails to address the real causes of unsafe devices. 

BQ’s transport alliance requests 

Bicycle Queensland joined RACQ and Queensland Walks in calling for a targeted reform package to improve safety while protecting the benefits of cycling and micromobility. Key recommendations included: 

• Stronger enforcement and penalties for illegal high-powered devices and dangerous behaviour 
• Crackdowns on unsafe retailers who continued to import or sell equipment that didn’t meet the EN 15194 standard 
• Improved data and education, including statewide reporting and public dashboards supported by education campaigns 
• Investment in safer infrastructure, including separated cycling and micromobility lanes and higher-quality footpaths 
• Revamped hire schemes to improve safety and reduce footpath clutter 

“If we improved these five things we’d be in a much better situation than we are now,” said BQ’s CEO Matthew Burke.  

Licensing proposal is inequitable, costly and counterproductive 

BQ believes requiring a driver’s licence to ride a legal pedal-assist e-bike would create significant barriers for people who rely on cycling for everyday transport. 

As it puts a motor vehicle framework and cost burden onto people who have deliberately chosen not to own a car, it disadvantages young people, international students, visitors, and people who can’t obtain a licence due to disability or medical conditions. And it disadvantages those who have consciously opted to avoid ownership of a car. 

The proposal would add significant administrative and enforcement workload for police while doing nothing to regulate unsafe devices at their source – which is import and sales. It just shifts responsibility onto the user. 

The influx of illegal high-powered and throttle-controlled devices followed the former Morrison Government’s 2021 decision to remove mandatory compliance with the EN15194 e-bike safety standard. 

That decision opened the floodgates to non-compliant devices entering Australia, and BQ has welcomed the recent reinstatement of EN15194 nationally. But that does need to be enforced at a national level. 

With Brisbane 2032 on a closing horizon, the licensing proposal could significantly undermine active transport planning for major events and long-term congestion and emissions goals. 

The volume of visitors to Brisbane and other host cities will rely on active transport and public transport as solutions to moving people. A requirement for licences will have a severe impact on the benefit that active transport has delivered for recent Games. Discouraging active transport is the opposite of what cities are doing around the world to fight congestion. 
 
The licencing response, without any commitment to creating a safer user environment, is motonormativity in action. 

BQ is urging the Queensland Government to reject any licensing requirement for legal pedal-assist e-bikes and focus on product regulation, retailer accountability and infrastructure investment. 

Read BQ’s submission to the inquiry.