[Peakoil] When is a bike not a bike? When it's electric

[Alex Pollard]

Sadly this situation would apply also in the ACT, and nationally:

http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/act/consol_reg/rtrr2000478/s20.html
____________________
ROAD TRANSPORT (VEHICLE REGISTRATION) REGULATION 2000 - REG 20 
Bicycles with auxiliary motors 

    (1)     The registration provisions do not apply to a registrable 
vehicle that is a bicycle. 

    (2)     In this section: 

"bicycle"—see the Australian Road Rules, dictionary. 

Note     Under the definition in the Australian Road Rules a bicycle does 
not include any vehicle with an auxiliary motor capable of generating a 
power output over 200W. 

____________________

This means changing the law would probably involve the national council of 
ministers or somesuch and take months. Of course, the ACT govt could just 
go it alone. Or just break the law and not get caught!

Alex

On 16 Jun 2008 22:55:09 -0000, "Alex Pollard" <alex-po at trevbus.org> wrote :

> ACT Peak Oil advocates a speed limit for unregistered electric bikes, 
rather
> than a power limit. This helps for climbing steep hills.
> 
> Maybe now a NSW minister is losing his license and must ride, sanity will
> prevail? 
> 
> Alex
> O4O4873828
> 
> President
> ACT Peak Oil Inc.
> http://act-peakoil.org
> 
> ___________________
> 
> http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/when-is-a-bike-not-a-bike-when-its-
electric/2008/06/15/1213468240544.html
> 
> When is a bike not a bike? When it's electric
> 
> E-bike gloom . Craig Donarski has just spent $1400 on a new electric 
scooter
> that, after a Supreme Court decision, he can no longer use for his daily
> journey from Lilyfield to Circular Quay.
> 
> Geesche Jacobsen
> June 16, 2008
> 
> THEY might look like a solution to the rising oil price and global 
warming,
> but a court ruling has found some motorised bicycles cannot be legally 
used
> on NSW roads - even though the Roads and Traffic Authority previously
> advised owners they could.
> 
> As many as 10,000 such bikes, known as E-bikes, may have been sold in NSW 
on
> the basis that they did not require registration, and all users had to do
> was wear a helmet and obey the road rules.
> 
> The law specifies that "pedal cycles" with "one or more auxiliary 
propulsion
> motors" up to 200 watts do not require registration.
> 
> In May last year, Deborah Alice Matheson was riding her Eazyride bike on a
> street in Nyngan at about 30 kilometres an hour, using its motor, when she
> was stopped by police. She told them the RTA had told her that the bike 
did
> not need to be registered, but she was charged with driving an 
unregistered
> vehicle. She was convicted at Nyngan local court this year and fined $500.
> 
> Last Thursday week, the Supreme Court upheld the verdict, without 
recording
> a conviction. Justice Peter Johnson found the magistrate who found Ms
> Matheson guilty had not erred in ruling that the bike motor was not
> "auxiliary" but primary, and its pedal power was secondary.
> 
> Early last year, a person who rode an electric scooter on a street was
> acquitted in Sutherland local court of driving an unregistered vehicle.
> 
> The director of the bicycle company Eazy Ride, Trevor Patrick, was 
dismayed
> by the Supreme Court's decision and has closed his business.
> 
> He said he had received advice from two senior RTA officials suggesting 
that
> E-bikes did not have to be registered and could be used like bicycles. "If
> anyone in this state is entitled to believe she's been denied natural
> justice it's Mrs Matheson," he said.
> 
> An RTA spokeswoman denied the organisation had ever advised that E-bikes
> could be used without registration.
> 
> She said they did not meet safety standards and therefore could not be
> registered. They could be used only in backyards and on private roads. "We
> encourage anyone who has been sold a bike under false pretences to go to 
the
> Department of Fair Trading," she said.
> 
> But an RTA review in February still spoke of the need to clarify the
> "intention of exemption from registration" of E-bikes and called for 
certain
> vehicles to be excluded. It also referred to "confusion amongst the 
public,
> police, magistrates and even RTA officers" about which vehicles should be
> registered.
> 
> One cyclist, Craig Donarski, has been riding his electric bicycle to work
> almost every day for two years. He says the trip from Lilyfield to 
Circular
> Quay takes him 22 minutes, and it costs him about 10cents to 12cents a 
week
> in electricity to charge the batteries on his bike.
> 
> "It's the cheapest form of transport past the pushbike . It makes bike
> travel possible for people who don't have the levels of fitness or 
strength
> to ride a normal pushbike. It just seems absurd . when we are worrying 
about
> anything from peak oil to greenhouse gases to parking, to make these 
things
> illegal."
> 
> Mr Donarski had an Eazyride bike, but has just bought a newer electric
> bicycle for $1400. He says the company that sold it had told him it did 
not
> require registration.
> 
> "I just spent $1400 on the assumption that it was a legal vehicle to 
ride."
> 
> "There goes my budget," he said, as he contemplated his future need for
> public transport.
> 
> 
> 
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