Not all e-rideables are the same. Legal e-bikes are much safer than e-scooters due to wheel size and centre of gravity, and both are probably safer than e-motos because of the higher speeds involved.

FWIW I’ve seen plenty of kids hooning on e-motos and e-scooters, but yet to see it on a pedal-assisted bike.

Also, what about those kids who use pedal-assisted bikes to get to their friends’ places, go to school, or leisure rides with family? Frankly the idea of banning this is ludicrous in my view.

I tend to notice that people less confident ride the footpath instead of on the road. I was thinking about this and I think this should be a choice, as footpaths tend to be better for a slower, leisurely pace. Of course a bike lane would be great here and would be a middle ground that might allow slightly faster riding without having to veer around pedestrians or pay close attention to driveways (the real reason why a lot of cyclists avoid footpaths).

The video doesn’t quite capture the extent of Greater Brisbane’s shared path network of unofficial bikeways that will technically also requires e-bikes and e-scooters to ride 10km/h.

It’s simple math, but slow speeds like 10km/h would obviously double the time for the trip which is the real killer here.

I’ll be at the mass ride tonight to show my support, as a regular cyclist and likely future e-bike owner who would like to ride on shared paths > 10km/h.

Yeah I feel you there. I’m not on Facebook so I just attend these sort of public events. I’ve mentioned it to BQ and South BUG before but the impression I got was that Facebook works for the majority.

There is a mass-ride event to protest the e-bike laws in Qld being held on Wednesday starting at 5pm from Raymond Park. Event being organised on the blue site: https://www.facebook.com/events/26438874392465778/

What about riding distances further than one would be capable or willing to ride without a motor?

Many people wouldn’t be interested in riding, say, 10-15km each direction especially in a hilly area, but a motor could be a game changer.

The idea that you’re not tough enough if you don’t pushbike it is just ignorance and ironically more likely to push people into driving or other modes of transport.

Yay!

Can’t make many comments on Chermside but the biggest issue with Upper Mount Gravatt is how car infested it is. Both kids and cyclists have been hit on Klumpp Road. It is near the V1 Veloway (the noisy, less pleasant part compared to the Woollongabba-CBD stretch) but otherwise has pretty poor cycling infrastructure.

My high level suggestion are:

• More bike lanes and bikeways. Connect up the Bulimba Creek bikeway to the Veloway - either needs a new bridge over the motorway or bike lanes on and around Kessels Road.
• Walking access to the Upper Mount Gravatt busway bus stop should be improved. Wider, flatter footpaths with more trees, reconfigured traffic lights. Do some user testing.
• The Griffith University stop on the busway should be moved southbound to the Park ‘n’ Ride at Klumpp Road, especially now that Mt Gravatt campus has closed. This would benefit Hibiscus, the local schools and sports club as well.
• Dunno what to do about the hellscape that is Logan Road and Kessels. Kessels Rd is a major arterial road that trucks use to get to the Gateway Motorway/Port of Brisbane. Maybe long term improvements to the rail network so that freight have separate tracks?

I worked at a university in the IT area. The influence of the Big 4 was visible, with corporate coloured decisions being made that favoured large companies over internal capabilities.

The outcome was already predetermined when the legislation was passed, and the report is being written with that in mind. The report basically has to push it forwards. If this had been done by the ALRC it would have looked quite different.

Will Signal block Australian IP addresses, or nix accounts that have a +61 phone number? I’d assume the former but if Signal and other social media platforms go for the latter it will be painful for Australian netizens.

I wonder if they’re planning road diets on the surface. Maybe some bike lanes, bus lanes and wider footpaths.

(For the record I highly doubt that, but if such a wasteful project were to go ahead that would be the best concession IMO).

Hmm I don’t usually chill my water but I heard that helps a lot. Might start doing that myself.

The taste is very noticeable unchilled. I noticed after rinsing when brushing my teeth. I heard the water was bad in the western suburbs and it was about 24 hours later that I started noticing the taste in Brisbane’s south (I guess the water towers get filled at different times).

I’ve been double-filtering mine with a Brita water jug which removes nearly all of the taste.

There were gates put in place and bouncers to prevent people from riding straight through. You could still get off your bike, walk past the bouncer, and then ride to the next gate, which plenty of cyclists were doing.

Personally one of the issues is the casino bouncers doing traffic control. Even as a compliant citizen I have been berated and harassed by bouncers.

Even with a 10% pay cut the VC will be remunerated over $1,000,000 per year, even despite the university’s poor financial performance.

Having worked at a university the waste is in plain sight. Vendor lock-in, consulting fees (especially with the Big 4), high executive pay, and compartmentalisation between professional and academic staff are high on the list.

In my area (different university) there was a constant stream of poor decision making. Moving to the cloud? Let’s hire a consultant to tell us what to do, and then do it in the worst possible way, instead of using internal capabilities! I suggested that the contract include provisions for “best practice” as listed by the vendor (HashiCorp) but this was ignored. The consultant gave us spaghetti Terraform code and an inefficient, high cost subscription layout.

The professional and academic staff barely talk in my experience. Academics do their own thing as much as possible. Professional staff throw solutions over the wall, mostly because of the existence of the wall in the first place.

The university was looking at using “crotch sensors” (motion sensors under the desk) to measure desk utilisation, spending money on “smart” ambient sound solutions etc. in the executive building, and other high cost solutions looking for a problem, at the same time as freezing staff and threatening redundancies. I was denied training but offered access to an LLM subscription (GitHub CoPilot) along with other IT staff, because AI is the going buzzword being parroted by the executives.

The higher education sector seriously needs an external review… and a proverbial kick up the bum.

I sold my car last year and barely gave it a secomd thought (I still have access to a car on weekends). Money, environment and space-saving were all factors.

I don’t think government should be in the business of subsidising driving (which is currently the case in multiple ways). Instead that money should be used to make public and active transport safe, convenient and reliable.

Absolutely. I think Victoria is the model to follow. I was more alluding to significant interstate investor activity in Qld perhaps partially due to improvements in Victoria’s housing incentives.

Victoria also has a vacancy tax. It’s good but downside is exporting would-be investors to other capital cities. It’s almost as if federally-coordinated action is required.

Yeah, I usually follow the Greens and warm to MMT thinking, but using interest rates to improve housing affordability is just a really big misuse of a big lever with broad consequencess.

Now, they didn’t talk about it at all in their media release and maybe it hasn’t even been considered by Aus Greens, but a big theme in The Green New Deal in the US is looking at fiscal policies that may reduce inflation, like continuing to reduce dependence on petroleum through electrification and public transport infrastructure (every person who catches PT is reducing oil demand), and improving healthcare through universal healthcare like we do here. Of course construction may be the limiting factor when it comes to inflation, but a wartime-style focus on construction supply is basically what is being proposed by MMT proponents.

Back to Australia and the Greens, if they were talking about price stability and alternatives to higher interest rates I might be more supportive. I can think of another political candidate also calling for lower rates in the US - Donald Trump. The reality is that it’s politically popular to deliver lower rates risking future price inflation.

On one hand, the hate that’s being directed to the e-Safety commish is disgraceful.

On the other hand she is effectively proposing an internet licence for all Australians to be able to interact online via mandatory age verification. It applies to all social media sites but the definition of social media is so vague it basically just says a digital service which can be used to communicate with other people. She is deserving of our scrutiny.

https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Social_Media/SocialMedia/Terms_of_Reference