There’s one glorious reason my kids and I love our e-bike

May 12, 2026 — 3:30pm

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.

Remove items from your saved list to add more.

Death machines! Unlicensed! Unregulated! Basically a motorbike! These criticisms are lobbed daily at e-bikes, the slicker and faster versions of the pushbike of yore, which have swarmed Sydney’s streets and stopped every barbecue at which they are mentioned.

Critics, of course, have a point. Teenagers pushing 50km/h on suburban footpaths as they whizz past toddlers on trikes and people on walkers are a common sight, as are bikes overloaded with three bikini-clad selfie-takers boasting not a helmet between them.

Last month, a 38-year-old driver allegedly ran over a child on his bike after a road-rage incident. Scores of riders are injured every week. Some have died. Pedestrians are rightly scared, parents rightly concerned, teenagers rightly unbothered, and governments across the country grappling with exactly how to regulate.

A minimum age for e-bike riders – the NSW government is considering........

© The Age