I’m a regular visitor from Melbourne staying at Suffolk Park. One recent change puzzles me: the seeming lack of public recognition of recently-revised by-laws meant to slow down e-bike riders and to increase rider and public safety.
The trend to ‘fat-tyre’ bikes has been very popular, allowing fitting of stronger motors. Nobody pedals anymore.
E-bikes have become a cheap, efficient means of transport, which appeals to adults as basic transport, and to pre-adolescents and adolescents as exciting entertainment.
Laws across the states lack uniformity: Victoria limits motor size to 250 watts. Amongst a group of young boys on bikes whom I recently spoke to, their bike engine sizes ranged from 500 to 1500w.
Many e-bike riders continue to ride without age restriction or fear of censure.
Social pressure amongst (mostly) young boys has made e-bikes highly desirable.
Parents allow their (mostly) boys to ride unsupervised at a supposedly limited speed of 25 km/h.
I ask: are parents abrogating their responsibilities to their own children as well as to the general public?
While policing of car drivers and traffic are constant, why is the behaviour of e-bike riders ignored?
I make these comments as an e-bike rider of 20 years who happens to live within a safer paradigm down south.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
