New e-bike and e-scooter laws take effect in Queensland as offenders face $518 fine

Queensland now has some of the toughest e-bike and e-scooter laws in the world, with the latest phase of a major crackdown coming into effect this week with no grace period for riders.

Police have wasted no time enforcing the new rules, patrolling cities and issuing on-the-spot fines of $518 to anyone caught breaking the regulations.

All riders must now hold at least a learner’s permit unless they have a medical exemption or disability.

Unlicensed riders aged between 12 and 17 must be supervised by adults, and parents will be forced to pay fines if their children are caught breaking the rules.

“From today, they’re going to see an increased police presence on our roads and not only in the business-as-usual format, doing patrols around e-mobility devices but also special operations,” Acting Deputy Commissioner Rhys Wildman said.

The new regulations expand on tougher laws that began on July 1 this year.

Since the first phase of the crackdown started, police have seized almost 400 illegal e-bikes and e-scooters.

“We are still selling over-speed, over-powered devices in bricks-and-mortar stores in Queensland , and they’re still available online,” Bicycle Queensland CEO Dr Matthew Burke said.

“At the moment, the police are taking six illegal devices off the road every day. That’s good, but it’s a very slow rate and if we’re selling 20 or more, the mathematics are not in our favour.”

The crackdown comes after six lives were lost in Queensland e-bike and e-scooter crashes this year, with thousands more people ending up in hospital.

Authorities say the success of the new laws won’t be measured by the number of fines issued, but by how many lives are saved.

Last week a 13-year-old boy thrown from an e-scooter at Childers, in Bundaberg, suffered devastating head injuries before dying in hospital three days later.

NSW, Victoria and WA have all launched parliamentary inquiries into e-rideables and e-bikes in the past two years, examining crashes, speed limits, helmet rules, battery fires and the status of devices that are effectively unregistered motorbikes.

Public transport operators in NSW and Victoria have imposed bans or tight restrictions on e-bikes and other battery-powered devices on networks, citing the risk of lithium-ion battery fires on trains and stations.