this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2026
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Ban under-16s from riding ebikes and e-scooters then require a driver’s licence, Queensland inquiry to recommend (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 5 days ago by Valnao@sh.itjust.works to c/australia@aussie.zone
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[–] brisk@aussie.zone 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The requirement to prove you can safely drive a car in order to use a much safer vehicle is bizarre. Given that it's not listed under the AMAQ recommendations, I assume that one came from the Royal Automobile Club. It seems a bit strange that the automobile club was included at all given that the originating incident had no cars involved.

This bit at the end seems important

According to the Department of Transport and Main Roads’ annual crash report, 307 lives were lost in 284 crashes in Queensland in 2025, the highest road toll in the state in 16 years.

This included 129 car driver fatalities and 44 passenger deaths, while “personal mobility devices” – which covers e-scooters – saw the fewest fatalities, with eight deaths. There were 38 pedestrians, 50 truck driver, 75 motorcycle/moped rider and pillion and 13 bicycle or ebike rider and pillion fatalities.

In the six months to 30 June last year, 1,455 drivers were hospitalised after a crash while 105 personal mobility device users were hospitalised with injuries.

[–] YeahToast@aussie.zone 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Those numbers are pretty irrelevant unless you're able to provide a comparable percentage. For example, 129 car driver deaths per 1million road hours compared to 8 escooter deaths per 10,000 hours. Sure, the number of deaths might be lower, but risk higher.

[–] brisk@aussie.zone 2 points 4 days ago

Agreed, absolute numbers are not a useful comparison