Electric bikes
Rachel WESTAWAY (Prahran) (13:21): Don’t you just love take-out? The seat of Prahran has got the most extraordinary takeaway restaurants, providing residents in the seat with fabulous food from Chinese and Vietnamese to Indian to Eurasian – a whole range of different types of food. Uber Eats, Hungry Panda and DoorDash all offer an absolutely brilliant service. However, we are facing a crisis on our roads. It has been drawn to my attention, not only being a local but also having found out from people who live in my local area, particularly those that are sight-impaired or that have disabilities, that some of these e-bikes are creating absolute havoc on our roads, and I am speaking up for my local residents. Recent research by Monash University has exposed the alarming reality of illegal e-bike operations in our commercial delivery sector. With over 27,000 vehicles monitored across Melbourne, almost half were delivery e-bikes, and the findings are deeply concerning. We find that some are reaching speeds of up to 54 kilometres an hour and the legal speed is 25 kilometres an hour. These are not isolated incidents; there are collisions, and they have surged by 82 per cent, so we are absolutely wanting to see greater regulation in this space to make certain that there is safety and security on our roads so that we can actually have great services taken home.