Children under the age of 16 will be banned from riding e-mobility devices if the Queensland Government follows sweeping recommendations by a parliamentary committee.
And riders would be limited to a maximum of 10km/h on footpaths in an attempt to discourage hooning and address pedestrians’ safety concerns.
But the committee stopped well short of recommending an outright ban despite the devices being implicated in the deaths of a dozen people in Queensland in 2025, including several children.
Instead, it recommends that riders of e-bikes and personal mobility devices be required to hold at least a Queensland C-class learner licence, with the exception of wheelchair and other accessibility device users.
Experts advised that children under 16 lacked the cognitive and motor skills required to safely operate e-mobility devices, with the risk heightened by limited understanding of road rules.
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The report noted that Queensland Health reported more than 6300 e-mobility related emergency department presentations in the year to March 2025 – a figure thought to underestimate the true number of incidents.
It said more than 200 cases involved major trauma, with more than 60 requiring intensive care, mainly for head and facial injuries.
It notes a clear trend of severe, disabling and long-term harm associated with e-mobility device incidents.
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But the committee – which acknowledged that thousands of families with children under 16 already owned the devices legally – came down firmly on the side of stronger regulation of the devices.
“The reality is that these devices – both e-scooters and e-bikes – are being used in their thousands on Queensland roads,” the report by the State Development, Infrastructure and Works Committee says.
The report says that when used responsibly, e-mobility devices provide “a viable and valuable component of the state’s public transport system”.
It calls for e-mobility devices be better integrated into the state’s public transport network, calling on state and local government to work on providing suitable pathways and parking options.
It further recommends that any device with a top speed exceeding 25km/h be defined as a motorcycle, moped or other appropriate classification.
Such devices could only be ridden on roads and would have to be registered and covered by compulsory third-party insurance.
Riders of such vehicles would be required to wear helmets and to hold the appropriate class of licence, such as a motorcycle licence.
To simplify enforcement operations, it recommended that the government update legislation to define all e-mobility devices with an electrical power source as motor vehicles.
The office of the state Transport Minister Brent Mickelberg was contacted for comment.
