‘They’re a 25km/h missile’: The case for and against e-scooters in the city
‘They’re a 25km/h missile’: The case for and against e-scooters in the city
Getting rid of e-scooters would be a missed opportunity. Let’s explore ways to make them safer before banning them.
An audit of presentations to the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital in 2021 showed about 1.5 patients arriving with e-scooter-related injuries every day. Twenty-five per cent involved alcohol, 71 per cent were male and 10 per cent were not wearing a helmet.
Personally, I would hate to see e-scooters banned on the back of the minority that use them irresponsibly. I think they’re fun, practical and a good way to get around the city.
But I do think we could make them safer for users and pedestrians. Brisbane could follow France and Germany’s lead and lower the overall speed limit to 20 km/h. First-time users should have to watch a demonstration video and complete safety modules before riding.
Maybe they should be banned in pedestrian-heavy areas of the CBD or fitted with technology to prevent illegal riding and ensure helmets are actually being worn.
Personally, I'd like to see a bigger emphasis on the ebike hires than escooters. They're just as fun, potentially much faster (equal uphill, faster downhill, and potentially faster on the flat if you've got good legs), and most importantly: much, much safer for their riders.
8Now do cars.
8Do what with them? There's honestly not much I'd like to do to them in terms of actual regulation.
Though enforcement of existing regulations could certainly be better. And road design & urban planning could be a lot better to encourage the use of alternative means of transportation.
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don't need that much roads or heavy bridges, dont need 2 tons of metal 😍
i suspect bikes would injure just as much if people who dont ride them otherwise will use them at 30 kmh outside of bikelanes
2The big difference is in stability. Scooters are insanely unstable compared to bikes, for complicated reasons I don't fully understand, but I think have something to do with where the centre of gravity is, and how the geometry of the forks help force them into self-righting.
The danger scooters provide to their own riders is much higher than bikes. And because of this, I suspect riders are forced to spend a lot more attention on that, which means they have less attention to spare and are more likely to endanger others.
8Would they? Riding bikes is taught quite early on in most kids lives, and the bigger wheels and more room for suspension makes me inclined to believe that there's less chance of being thrown off an ebike because of a shitty footpath or bad turn, at least for a basic commuter type bike. You've also got to be putting some effort in to get over 20km/h, ebike throttles are supposed to be limited to walking speed. I dont have firsthand experience with escooters, though, so theres a chance I may be missing something here.
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Was in New Zealand for a short holiday last year and I hired one of those e-scooters for about an hour. Very convenient and fun. Most of the users there were quite well behaved too. I think discouraging anti-social behavior in users here will go a long way in making ebikes and escooters accepted by the community and councils.
4E-Scooters and E-Bikes can and should be treated like their petrol powered equivalents.
Stay below a maximum power output. In Europe that max is 200w. They should be no more than assisted bicycles.
If you want to go a bit faster then you're looking at a pedal assisted motorcycle. A MOPED (MOtor + PEDals). Those are limited to 45-50kmh.
If you want to go faster than even that, it's a motorcycle. Just an electric one. Even with motorcycles you have a bunch of categories. In Europe the A1, A2 and fully open category.
We can open up new paths for A1 which are commonly used by deliver riders to encourage people to get away from car culture.
That would solve the whole issue of people people being idiots on them and the state can make a bit if income through licensing. I'd rather see that than an outright ban as we want smart regulation and innovation.
1There are power limits on ebikes & PMDs, but the primary restriction that gets publicised about them is speed limits. By law they are required to be speed-limited to 25 km/h. On ebikes, this is their limit under pedal assist. When coasting downhill, or if the cyclist's legs are strong enough, they can go over that, but zero motor assistance is allowed at that point. They must be entirely pedal assist, not throttle based (with the exception that you can have power without pedalling up to 6 km/h to help you get started). The power limit is 250 W, the same as the standard in Europe.
PMDs are limited to 25 km/h. Full stop. Under no circumstances can they exceed that. I can't find any rules around maximum power for these. I don't think there is one. There's a 200 W limit on "wheeled recreational services", but these are a separate category from personal mobility devices under the law, meant more as toys than serious modes of transport.
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