The Business Rory’s Ramble

E-transport: the answer to replacing cars in inner-city traffic

Electric scooters and e-bikes are fun, convenient and practical, and really don’t deserve the poor publicity they’ve been getting lately. A few common-sense precautions, as with any motorised vehicle, and they can be a valuable and sustainable part of our transport infrastructure.

But right now, people have let some nasty incidents colour their view. When in reality, these are the teething pains of new devices as people push their boundaries, particularly after Covid lockdown for two years. Hopefully, things will settle down and people will respect the road rules and not vandalise this remarkably handy means of transport.

In the Melbourne and Geelong CBDs, councils have reduced speeds to 40kmh and have gone to a lot of expense to build hardedged, protected bike lanes. As soon as you’re out of those areas, you’re not protected as traffic is travelling at 60kmh then 80kmh. We need a more consistent bike lane system over a larger area. It needs to be less obtrusive and more economical.

It’s peculiar because decisions to make the Melbourne CBD and inner suburbs bike-friendly are being made by planners and engineers, the majority of whom don’t even ride a bike. I’ve been in many local and state government forums where I’m one of only a few who actually do any commuting on a bike between the office and home. We actually have eight bikes: four leg-powered bikes and four e-bikes.

And we have regulations that are way over-cautious, to the point of potentially denying the public a valid, healthy, convenient

Rory Costelloe, Founder & Executive Director, Villawood Properties

and much-needed mode of transport. Buses, trams, bicycles, electric bikes are all accepted options that make up a valuable, low-energy package of transport options for modern cities and towns. They’re good for your nerves, your pocket and your planet.

Electric scooters tick all the same boxes and need to be part of that system, too. It’s a good idea to make our roads more prioritised and protected for cyclists. And if that’s the end game, you can’t complain about the proliferation of e-scooters and e-bikes being used as modes of transport.

The number of e-transport deaths and injuries is dramatically less than the number of car deaths and accidents before seatbelts, airbags, .05 laws or tighter speed limits were introduced. This is another such situation, and e-transport will sort itself out. Currently, e-bikes have governed speed, via electric assistance, at 26kmh which is too slow when sharing bike lanes with other commuter bikes that travel consistently within a 30-32kmh speed range. When these regulations were introduced, they were borrowed from overseas without thought for Australian conditions, particularly travel over longer distances.

Many e-bikers are importing chips from overseas so they can increase the speed, usually by doubling the 26kmh limit, to have electric power assistance up to 52kmh, which is obviously a dangerous situation. But rather than people being dissatisfied with 26kmh, you should increase the electric assistance speed to say 32kmh, for a happy medium. If that was changed, then the attractiveness of e-bike and e-scooter use for commuting would be increased, and that would mean people could commute into the CBD from inner-ring and mid-ring suburbs.

The effect could be quite significant. Anecdotal evidence says e-bike commuters will travel triple the distance than a normal rider will. So, by tripling the distance, you are increasing the catchment of rideable suburbs into the CBD by 900 per cent.

It’s pertinent, too, to note that Melbourne’s CBD speed limit is currently 40kmh, creating such gridlock that it’s almost impossible to drive in the city. There’s talk of dropping this to 30kmh, which I don’t particularly agree with. Slower-moving cars means pedestrians cross the road willy-nilly with little or no regard for drivers. Slowing to 30kmh would further gridlock the city. It would not make it safer, there’d be less regard by pedestrians.

Melbourne should allow e-transport to use some footpaths where traffic is too tight and wide paths exist; for example, Flinders Street south side between Queen and Market, and City Road in parts. Also, one-way streets with low traffic speeds such as Flinders Lane, Little Collins, Little Bourke, etc, could be designated shared roadway so that bikes could travel in both directions. I’ve done it a few times to experiment.

As speed limits have been reduced, it would beg the question why do we need to wear helmets in sub-40kmh precincts? Helmets are not worn in other countries; for example, South America, USA and many parts of Europe and Asia. Helmets are a good thing to protect against brain damage and I have personal experience with brain trauma from a bike-car accident, but there is a greater good to getting more people on bikes. Isn’t it better to get people on bikes and reduce car traffic with 40kmh areas?

A key problem here is that all levels of government, and to a lesser extent private industry, are paralysed from making decisions based on risk management. I believe this lack of decisionmaking reflects a failure to allow people to take responsibility for their own decisions. It’s causing great damage through inactivity and the rise in mental health issues. We should be able to get outside, have fun, take risks and be responsible for our own actions.

I recently went to the St Kilda Festival to see Daryl Braithwaite, and I drove from the office. Knowing parking would be a premium there, I looked at my Neuron and Lime e-scooter app to locate scooters in nearby free parking areas. I found some in Middle Park, parked and conveniently rode from there. Hiring an e-scooter is not cheap but they’re cheaper than Uber. At around 50 cents a minute, they’re not realistic for long-distance commuting but certainly are for short distances, to say meetings that might take five or eight minutes to get to. They’re far more economical and quicker than travelling by taxi, Uber or tram.

As for wet weather, travelling by powered e-bike means you don’t sweat underneath when wearing waterproof/sweat proof clothing, so you’re not wet when you get to your destination. A lot of people like to ride e-bikes to work so they’re not sweaty when they arrive, but then on the way home, conversely, they turn down the power-assist and ride under their own steam for a workout.

The bottom line: we know cars are harder and harder to accommodate in our city centres, we know people want more options, we know people like sustainable alternatives, and we know they will favour convenience every time.

E-transport offers all of the above. We just need to ensure regulations are practical and safe to ensure public confidence in these modes of transport.

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