To: Brent Mickelberg MP
Protect Safe E-Bikes and Active Transport in Queensland
🚫 Stop the E-Bike Crackdown That Misses the Point
Queensland’s proposed e-bike laws are targeting the wrong problem.
They treat legal 250W pedal-assist bikes—which only work when you pedal—the same as high-powered or illegally modified e-bikes. That’s not just inaccurate, it’s bad policy.
🚴♂️ These bikes are:
- A low-cost alternative during a cost-of-living and fuel crisis
- A practical way to commute without relying on cars
- Widely used by families, workers, and young people
⚠️ What’s wrong with the proposal?
- A blanket 10 km/h speed limit on shared paths—even wide, open ones like the Sunshine Coast Coastal Pathway and Brisbane River paths
- Potential licensing requirements
- Restrictions on under-16s, removing independence for young people
❌ Why this doesn’t make sense
- Shared paths are already wide, visible, and safely used at higher speeds
- Regular bikes and skateboards can go faster—but aren’t restricted
- A 10 km/h limit makes e-bikes too slow to be useful for commuting
At a time when people are struggling with fuel and living costs, this pushes people back into cars, or into dangerous bike lanes on busy roads when they have a perfectly safe alternative -shared paths —the opposite of what we should be doing.
👨👩👧👦 Real impacts
- More pressure on working families
- Less independence for young people getting to work or sport
- Damage to local businesses and tourism
✅ What we actually need
- Target illegal and high-powered e-bikes, not compliant ones
- Allow reasonable speeds (20–25 km/h on open paths)
- Focus on safe behaviour, not blanket restrictions
✊ Take action
These laws risk punishing responsible riders while ignoring the real issues.
👉 Make a submission and tell the government:
Don’t overregulate safe, everyday transport. Get this right.
Don’t overregulate safe, everyday transport. Get this right.
Why is this important?
Why is this important?
Because this isn’t just about bikes—it’s about cost of living, common sense, and fair regulation. The QLD government seems to only care about optics and appealing to the Karens that are easily tricked by the sensationalist journalism of a current affair and are satisfied by knee jerk reactions and punitive punishments of all.
Right now, people are looking for ways to save money on fuel, avoid traffic, and get around efficiently. E-bikes are one of the few practical options that tick all those boxes. They’re cheap to run, accessible, and already widely used across Queensland.
These proposed laws would make that harder—slowing riders to near walking pace and adding unnecessary restrictions. That doesn’t improve safety. It just makes a useful, low-cost transport option impractical.
It also undermines millions of dollars of public investment in shared pathways that were built to be used—not crawled along at 10 km/h.
Why should people join this campaign?
Because this affects more than just e-bike riders.
- It impacts anyone trying to cut transport costs
- It affects families, who will lose a simple way for kids to get to school, sport, or part-time jobs
- It affects communities and local businesses that benefit from active transport and tourism
- It affects future policy direction—whether governments regulate based on evidence, or react to a minority with blanket rules
Most importantly, it’s about standing up against overreach.
If these kinds of broad, poorly targeted restrictions go unchallenged, they set a precedent. Today it’s e-bikes. Tomorrow it’s something else.
This is a chance to push for balanced, evidence-based rules that:
- target unsafe behaviour
- protect access to practical transport
- support the lifestyle Queensland promotes
