A recent report from Sky News Australia has laid bare the mounting human cost of our unregulated streets: over the last five years, 40 Australians have been killed and approximately 12,000 injured in e-bike accidents.

These are not merely statistics; they represent a tidal wave of preventable trauma.

Yet, while the carnage grows, our parliaments are only now – belatedly and tentatively – deciding to do something. The NSW Premier, Chris Minns, admits that the present situation is ‘intolerable’ and ‘dangerous’.

So much so, as the Telegraph reported, a mob of about 40 e-bike riders allegedly flouting road rules on the Sydney Harbour Bridge recently did so with impunity.

Take the story of Sarah Briscoe-Hough. While pregnant and walking in Sydney, she was mowed down by an e-bike, an impact so severe it hospitalised her for two months. Her story, as reported on Sky News Australia, is the inevitable result of a regulatory vacuum that has allowed our footpaths to be colonised by high-speed, silent, and often illegal machines.

This is what could be called the ‘Cuckoo Principle’. In nature, the cuckoo lays its eggs in the nests of other birds, where the hatchling eventually shoves the original occupants aside. In our urban environment, we have allowed the ‘liberal’ expansion of e-mobility to act as the cuckoo. Under the guise of green progress, these vehicles have been permitted to hatch in the ‘nest’ of our pedestrian infrastructure. Now, they are pushing the original occupants – the elderly, parents with prams, little children, the disabled, and all the vulnerable – out of the way entirely.

We are witnessing a surge in high-powered e-bikes that behave more like motorbikes than bicycles. Yet, unlike motorbikes, they require no registration and no insurance. When an accident occurs, the victim is frequently left with no path to compensation and a rider who can simply vanish without a registration plate to identify them.

As with many other things, Singapore long ago found a common-sense solution to the problem. And if you have been there, you’ll know one thing about Singapore: the laws are enforced. Strictly. Australia must do the same.

Australian cities and towns are under a state of increasing anarchy.

To restore order, we must look to the Singapore Model, the international safety benchmark, and a local provision to remind people that the authorities mean business. These are, briefly:

• Mandatory Registration and ID: Every e-bike must carry a visible identification plate. If you are using public infrastructure with a motorised vehicle, you must be identifiable. The suggestion that only some should be registered would make the police’s task impossible.
• The 16+ Age Limit: Operating a motorised vehicle in a busy urban environment requires maturity. Singapore mandates a minimum age of 16 for e-bike riders; we should do the same to ensure children are not piloting heavy, high-speed machines through crowds.
• The ‘Gold Standard’ (EN 15194): We must strictly enforce the international EN 15194 standard. This ensures bikes are ‘pedal-assist’ only, capped at 250 Watts, with a motor cut-off at 25 km/h. This prevents the ‘Franken-bikes’ and modified throttles that currently plague our streets and footpaths.
• Compulsory Theory Tests: If you want the privilege of motor assistance, you must prove you know the rules. A simple, mandatory online theory test would ensure every rider understands them. We should evidence this by carrying a licence at all times.
• Third-Party Liability Insurance (TPLI): This is compulsory for commercial riders, although Singapore is considering extending it to all. We should anticipate that so that anyone injured through the negligence of a rider will be able to recover.
• Confiscation and Destruction: As a local provision, unregistered or non-compliant e-bikes, or those ridden by an unlicensed rider, should be immediately seized and, certainly, if non-compliant, destroyed. For the compliant they could alternatively be sold off.

Footpaths must remain a sanctuary. Without these common-sense measures, the ‘cuckoo’ will continue to dominate, and the death toll will continue to climb.

It is time for our politicians, who apparently do not use the streets, to act, in addition to building expensive, underused cycleways. After all, we have many more politicians than Singapore.