The requirement to prove you can safely drive a car in order to use a much safer vehicle is bizarre. Given that it’s not listed under the AMAQ recommendations, I assume that one came from the Royal Automobile Club. It seems a bit strange that the automobile club was included at all given that the originating incident had no cars involved.
This bit at the end seems important
According to the Department of Transport and Main Roads’ annual crash report, 307 lives were lost in 284 crashes in Queensland in 2025, the highest road toll in the state in 16 years.
This included 129 car driver fatalities and 44 passenger deaths, while “personal mobility devices” – which covers e-scooters – saw the fewest fatalities, with eight deaths. There were 38 pedestrians, 50 truck driver, 75 motorcycle/moped rider and pillion and 13 bicycle or ebike rider and pillion fatalities.
In the six months to 30 June last year, 1,455 drivers were hospitalised after a crash while 105 personal mobility device users were hospitalised with injuries.
DavidDoesLemmy@aussie.zone 2 days ago
Some sort of licensing might be appropriate advice a certain power level, but a driver’s licence is not really relevant to riding a bike.
zero_gravitas@aussie.zone 2 days ago
You have to demonstrate an understanding of road rules and signage to get a driver’s licence, which is pretty relevant.
I agree it would be better if there was a separate licensing system - one that would allows younger people to access some categories of e-bike - and I imagine we will in the long-run, but using existing systems as a stop-gap doesn’t seem unreasonable.
vividspecter@aussie.zone 2 days ago
The problem is that overly onerous requirements will discourage even more people taking up biking, in a time where absurd numbers of people drive literally everywhere.
I can understand the throttle based e-bikes requiring a license, but limiting pedelacs which are no more powerful than conventional bikes is ridiculous and feels like a moral panic type action.
MisterFrog@aussie.zone 2 days ago
I’m not against licencing for ebikes, especially if it allows 35 km/h top speeds (25 is a bit slow really).
Needing a car to get the licence, is a bit silly though