‘Wild west’: NSW shared e-bike trips to fund pedestrian clutter crackdown
E-bikes blocking pedestrian paths across Sydney will be moved to marked parking spaces in a $6.6 million campaign to help councils clean up their streets.
The use of shared e-bike programs has exploded in recent years with significant adoption of commute-ready personal e-bikes.
NSW Transport Minister John Graham said while the adoption was a “good thing”, the NSW government would not allow the “wild west scenes” that had frustrated local communities with the e-bike boom filling footpaths in Sydney’s CBD and surrounding suburbs to continue.
“Pedestrians are screaming for the return of order and footpaths; we have heard them and are responding with nation-leading rules and backing this with an industry-funded grant scheme to end conflict,” Mr Graham said.
Under the $6.6 million programme, grants of up to $200,000 will be distributed to local councils and other public authorities to provide e-bike parking and “improve e-bike behaviour”; The funding will be raised through a 60c fee paid to Transport for NSW for each shared e-bike trip.
At launch, 16 councils, including the City of Sydney, Inner West, Burwood and Parramatta, will participate in the programme, and operators will face fines of up to $55,000 (plus $5,000 for each day thereafter) or even have their approval revoked for failing to comply with minimum standards.
To support the plan, TfNSW will aim to deliver 250 parking spaces for 2,500 shared e-bikes this year, of which 62 have been delivered.
Councils will also have the power to decide on “slow” or “slow” zones for shared and private e-bikes and can decide which operators can set up in their areas.
“We already know that properly marked parking spaces halve overturned bikes and blocked footpaths,” Mr Graham said.
“We now want 16 councils to serve the areas where there is the most conflict and grievance.”
Mr Graham called on the Coalition to “support sensible rules for e-bikes and support this best practice framework”.
The move comes after the NSW government announced its intention to create the first regulatory framework for an estimated 760,000 e-bikes across the state; This includes a maximum power output of 250 watts and a legal minimum age of 12 to 16 years.
In the coming months, councils and the NSW government’s land managers will be given the power to designate required parking zones and penalize shared e-bike users found not using them.
Transport Minister Josh Murray said more shared e-bike trips were being made every day in Sydney.
“We know more needs to be done to ensure growth is well supported: people want and need better places to park, and communities rightly expect better management of shared e-bikes,” he said.
“The new grant scheme is critical to enable councils and state government land managers to tackle bad behaviour.
“It will make it easier for people using shared e-bikes to identify better places to park and will enable shared bike planning to be integrated with our streets and transport services.”
States and territories have struggled to legislate to stem the explosion in e-bike popularity.
NSW has recently sought to restrict the use of modified e-bikes on trains in the state.
The Queensland government introduced legislation earlier this year to introduce a licensing scheme and parental supervision for teenage drivers.
It follows a number of high-profile incidents involving motorists, including a mass ride on the Sydney Harbor Bridge.
