Logans Young People Need Electric Scooters

The Last Mile Problem

If you live in Jimboomba, Greenbank or Yarrabilba, you already know the deal. You need a car otherwise errands are a pain and walking to the shops takes longer than the errand itself. Electric Scooters fix this.

Large parts of the City of Logan are what transport planners call “public transport poor.” For some residents, a single bus route along the Mt Lindesay Highway is the only option. E-scooters solve this. For a few hundred dollars, a teenager can ride to the station, fold it up, catch the train, and get to work or TAFE. That’s the last mile problem fixed, cheaply and quickly.

What Brisbane Wants to Do

From 1 July, Queensland’s new e-mobility laws will require all e-scooter riders to hold at least a learner driver’s licence. Riders under 16 will be banned outright. Police will gain powers to seize and destroy devices on the spot. Footpath speed limits will drop to 10km/h. Anything capable of exceeding 25km/h gets reclassified as a motorcycle, requiring registration and insurance.

The state government accepted all 28 recommendations from the parliamentary inquiry into e-mobility safety. It took just weeks to push them toward legislation.

Who This Hurts

Maybe 10 per cent of riders are doing the wrong thing. Hooning, riding drunk, weaving through pedestrians. Nobody defends that. But these laws don't just hurt the 10 per cent. They punish the other 90: the teenager riding to their shift at Maccas, the guy picking up lunch on a budget, the teenager scooting to the gym.

Logan is one of Queensland's most disadvantaged local government areas. One in five households earns a low income. Our city does not need a government putting up more restrictive walls, telling people how to live their lives, that they need to pay for another fee or another license. For a lot of young people in this city, an e-scooter is the difference between making it and not. The state government should recognise the benefits electric scooters offer to suburban communities and come up with a more innovative solution that does not impact so many riders.

Education, Not Punishment

The safety concerns are real. Hospital presentations for e-scooter injuries in Queensland rose from 279 in 2019 to 877 in 2022. But 35 per cent of those patients were intoxicated, and helmet use sat below 50 per cent. But that doesn't mean we should get rid of a useful mode of transport. It’s a behaviour problem and should be addressed as such.

The government should focus on teaching riders how to ride safely instead of pushing them underground.

Let Logan Move

A $400 e-scooter gets a young person to a job interview, to TAFE, to the train station. It’s not a luxury. In a city where transport gaps lock people out of opportunities, it’s a lifeline.