Comment on E-bike rules in Australia will soon change with possible ban on sale of bikes faster than 25km/h
vas@lemmy.ml 5 days agoAs a person who lives in the Netherlands where hills are not a problem and heat is not a problem, it’s hard for me to understand the need for more than ~250W. I mean, I use all 600W when I want to get somewhere super-fast or after a traffic light, but it’s a luxury and I’d survive just fine with 250W.
That being said, when it’s hot and/or there are hills… I think I understand you. I’d definitely prefer to see a person on a 500W bike than a person on a got-knows-how-much-W car. I wouldn’t consider you a risk even if you occupy the bike lane, if your support is capped to 25km/h.
And from a third perspective, I do see the temptation to limit wattage to avoid the problem of “fat bikes” (as is observed in the last years in the Netherlands), but not really sure it’s that relevant to AU at the moment. I think I’d support a higher Wattage cap overall, up to 500W and 200%-300% support all seem fine to me.
ada@piefed.blahaj.zone 5 days ago
Yeah, it’s a huge problem in Australia. Mostly they have an unlock code in the electronic controller that lets you simply over-ride the speed limit. Some stores sell it already over-ridden, or just tell you how to do it.
But the other side of things is that Australia is a heavily car focused country, and whether they’re speed limited or not, whether they’re driven dangerously or not, they’re still far less lethal than cars, far less polluting than cars and far less wasteful than cars.
Making ebikes unappealing to people will just ensure none of that changes.
And the European standards are probably relevant in Europe, but they’re too conservative to increase ebike uptake here in Australia (or at least in Queensland, where I live). My state alone is 40 times the size of the Netherlands. And the city I live in has a comparable population to Amsterdam, but it’s spread over an area 6 times the physical size, with hills and a subtropical environment. We actually have pretty good cycling infrastructure as far as Australian cities go, but it’s nothing like what you have. So lots of our trips either need to be on the road, or on the footpath, and a 250W bike with a load going up a hill just isn’t safe on the road…