E-bike e-quality

Who doesn’t love an e-bike? They’re cheaper than an Uber, calmer than a bus, and with enough assistance to avoid turning up to your destination drenched in sweat.

Unfortunately, it turns out plenty of people disagree. 

This week, Independent MP Dr Sophie Scamps introduced the Safer E-Bikes Bill to parliament, calling for national safety and import standards. It follows the Queensland Government mulling a total ban, Victoria and NSW considering outlawing taking e-bikes on trains, and WA's Police Commissioner calling for stronger regulations.

The reasons for such regulation are all fair - accidents and injuries, unsafe riding practices, and in particular, the risk of fires caused by overheating lithium batteries, the total of which has already surpassed 180 in NSW this year.

But many of these issues are already the subject of existing laws. Lithium batteries, for instance, have to meet the EU’s catchily-named safety standard EN15194. The issue, it appears, is proper government oversight and enforcement.

What does this have to do with culture? Aside from The Cave’s summer plans of effectively overcoming Sydney’s hilly terrain that separates it from a day at the beach, of course.

Well, e-bikes are overwhelmingly used by delivery drivers for the likes of Uber Eats, Menulog, and DoorDash. 

The number of delivery drivers has almost doubled over the past decade, and bar somewhat terrifying experiments in using humanoid robots, that number will only continue to grow.

Laws that restrict access (thereby pushing up prices) or movement (given many drivers live in less affluent areas and travel to more affluent ones to deliver products) penalise those who work long, hard hours while already struggling to make ends meet. 

As inequality reaches record highs, more consideration should be given to the unintended consequences of even the most well-meaning laws. And pleasant beach trips, obviously.