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Without excusing the behaviour around illegal electric motorbikes, there has also been absolutely shocking media coverage in Australia on road deaths. Here's a summary of a particularly bad week of coverage: https://jakecoppinger.com/2025/12/why-wont-the-media-report-...

Did you notice this article doesn't have a single mention of safe bike lanes? In Australia we spend ~0.2% of our transport budget on cycling and walking infrastructure - and see very low rates of cycling (and terrible safety outcomes) as a result. See stats on the Australian situation at https://australiancyclewaystats.jakecoppinger.com/

The BBC would have done well to read up on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedestrian_Council_of_Australi... before seeking quotes.

Fatbikes are a problem in the Netherlands as well. Th Netherlands, also known as the #1 country - or at least in the top 3, no need to quibble about who comes first - when it comes to creating cycling infrastructure. Bicycle paths everywhere but those don't help against fatbike gangs. They don't care about safe cycling infrastructure, they hardly care about safety - especially other people's safety - at all.
As someone who's been observing how the media treats cycling in this city closely since the dark days of Ducan Gay, this is absolutely what is happening.

Thank you for posting this and for taking the time to document it in detail.

Over the top as mandatory registration of cyclists may be, he has a point on shared bike lanes. They're awful both for cyclists and pedestrians. From a cyclist's perspective you have a narrow path filled with effectively-immobile obstacles; from a pedestrian's you have a machine coming at you at speed which could cause you significant harm.
> [shared lanes] They're awful both for cyclists and pedestrians.

People riding bikes would always prefer a dedicated separated cycleway. Cyclists want to be on the footpath less than people walking want them there - they would only use it because it's safer than the road.

What usually happens here (and I assume is common in the US!) is the state transport department veto's taking away space from cars to build a proper bike lane, forcing people and bikes to fight over the scraps of street space left behind.

A particularly egregious example of exactly this scenario playing out: https://jakecoppinger.com/2024/09/another-broken-westconnex-...

If someone is arguing against shared paths - you should make sure they are arguing for bike lanes too. Otherwise they are not trying to be constructive.

We're plagued by these, and by souped up electric trail bikes. Kids far too young to die or get quadriplegia, blasting around in traffic. Usually with no sense of time and place. By law they are meant to be 25kph speed capped and require pedalling. They are doing 50pkh plus and take off like a scalded cat, doing wheelies.

I'm terrified for my own safety and theirs. I can't see this ending well.

I also hate it when kids have fun
You probably joke but I'm an avid motorcycle rider and when I ride in the 30 km/h (20 mph) zones in my city, these kids race past me. No matter it scares the shit out of me, when an accident occurs then the injuries will be horrific.

I'm not against them, to be sure. I don't know the solution, really. Maybe campaign for helmets, but how effective is that going to be?

> I don't know the solution

Fat middle aged men could start riding them or instead of shouting at them as they ride by Karens could cruise past on theirs.

That ought to do it.

It seems to have stopped "6 7..." I understand even the British PM helped out with the cringe
Look I get it, I deserve an "ok boomer" but they have got at BEST cycle protection, certainly not a full face helmet, rarely shoes even. It's a disaster waiting to happen. There were 14 deaths in Queensland in 2025 for this class of vehicle, way above normal level.
You know? Since about 1980 I did wheelies too, on my road bicycle. And up to 70kph on flat grounds for up to two minutes. Then having to go down to 55 to 60, which I could hold up for an hour, depending on weather, fitness (varying). No helmet, ever.

Also no broken bones, or having caused others to crash. Annoyances maybe, but such is youth :-)

I'm of the opinion that this "disaster waiting to happen" thinking is a disaster by itself. I may concede that some of these kids are too reckless too often to be good for them, because e-bikes make it too easy to go that fast, without having developed the ability to handle these speeds safely first, or knowing where not to(sharp curves, rain, wet leafs, sand, fine gravel, etc(Did I mention I rode iced roads in winter?)).

But in principle the ride is getting more stable at higher speeds, because gyroscopically stabilized by the spinning wheels.

I see it as a darwinian filter of fitness. Sieving out stupid. Just like that.

If you don't give youth the chance to navigate that, there will be more and more unfit.

No amount of laws will change that.

I don’t think I’ve ever met someone claiming to be able to easily maintain 70 km/h. Maintaining 50 km/h for an hour puts you well into top professional territory, especially if riding solo.

There’s basically no chance you got to that level without serious training, coaching, and a lot of experience.

That is a very different situation from just using a credit card and being able to zip down the road at 50-60 km/h. People have been killed by these fat bikes (as in, a pedestrian being struck), because fat bikes are significantly heavier than road bikes, and kids with no experience drive them in places where pedestrians do occur.

I doubt you were pulling 50+ km/h in the city centre, or on the beach promenade. Yet this is what we see with fat bikes.

The laws aren’t designed to protect the rider. They’re designed to protect the uninvolved bystanders who just want to enjoy a stroll.

I usually end my rides at 24-28 kmh average and outside of cyclists and e-bikes the amount of people that ride faster than me is pretty much zero. 70 is completely absurd, especially for "youth".

I don’t really care if a bunch of reckless kids want to gamble with their lives, but the place to do it is clearly on the street, not on the sidewalk. Those ebikes are pretty much dirt bikes, and nobody sane argues those should slalom between pedestrians, just like cars or motorcycles don’t drive on sidewalks. I don’t want to constantly be on the lookout for a 60 kmh vehicle careening right into me whenever I’m outside, which increasingly happens with food delivery "bikes" as well. There’s no place for them on crowded beaches either.

Wanna go as fast as cars? Cool, do it on the streets, it’s what they’re built for. Helmet (or even clothing) optional, I suppose, it really isn’t my problem.

55kph is about how fast Remco Evenepoel just did a flat 12km time trial in the UAE tour, to win it. I think you’re being a touch overconfident if you think you can hold that for an hour.
Do you live in areas where these fat bikes are popular?

I am fine with youth experimenting with dangerous stuff. What I have a problem with is having my small bike-oriented city be filled with kids pretending to be gangsters racing around on electric bikes with complete disregard to others.

There's a dearth of organ donors, so one could say let them have their fun.

Problem I have is that they often collide into others or cause others to have severe accidents, not unlike drunk drivers. And that's not cool at all.

We don't have a fat bike plague here, but we do have similar issues with E-scooters. Too many drive them with no regards for other peoples safety.

We all took risks in the 1980s, kids thrive on risk.

The element of risk existing is not the argument being made here by ggm - it's the morphing and stretching of of the acturial mortality and morbidity curve.

The claim being made is that unregulateled electric bikes mixing in neophyte road users, suburban traffic, uncapped speeds, etc is increasing the per capita risk for an age band over what it was when "we" inhabited that demographic tribe back in our short pant days.

Did your bike weigh 90 lbs and accelerate to top speed in 4 sec?
Some kids near me had fun throwing rocks from a bridge above the motorway. Someone's windshield got smashed, but hey the kids had fun!
I saw a young lady on a velocipede travelling at a positively indecent speed, wearing trousers, and several horses were rather badly startled. The moral degeneracy of the younger generation knows no bounds.
Didn't Australia recently ban social media for under 16s?

Sounds like kids are rediscovering fun and socialization in the outdoors.

Isn't this an unintended byproduct of what Australians wanted and legislated for?

They really could have added some bike lanes though.

This predates the social media laws which only started in December.
A lot of western Europe has a similar issue. It's not the Fatbikes per se, but what people do with it

-Harassing people -Not following Traffic rules

I actually don't think this looks that bad. I think it might even be good for them. If young people are eschewing helmets, I can see making a helmet law, but even if they take over a lane of traffic, they seem to be going in such large groups, that if they'd been in cars or other vehicles, moving in the most orderly manner imaginable, they'd be blocking the intersection just as effectively.

Consequently I think this is mostly fine. The big problems are the helmet issue and I also think they might need knee protection. 60 km/h is a bit high if they're made for 25 km/h, but most of this stuff is achievable with ordinary bicycles.

> If young people are eschewing helmets, I can see making a helmet law

Australia already has mandatory helmet laws for cycling; the person quoted is pointing out that they’re breaking the law.

I have seen them fall off their bikes in the middle of intersections on more than one occasion, hit people riding on the footpath, more than a few try to bully me off the road, doing dumbarse stunts in the process. One I saw got taken to hospital.

The issue is not so much the bikes or where they are riding, it is the brain dead groupthink mentality of a bunch of antisocial little rich boys who haven't been taught basic self preservation.. or what is feels like to be punched in the face on account of doing 50ks on a crowded footpath.

This comment thread is hilarious. Split down the line of the people who are like (let kids be kids, let them have fun) and the other group being concerned about the general welfare of everyone else.

I suspect the kids do whatever they want group dont have any experience with the actual nuisance complaint but provide a knee jerk reaction. Id wager its not dissimilar to the delivery ebike nuisance in nyc - which is problematic.

If ebikes are a nuisance or a danger then cars weighing 100× more should be even more concerning. Yet cars are a "fact of life" and bikes are a "nuisance" somehow... Go figure.
It sounds like you don't live in a city with an ebike delivery problem. I'd prefer a city with fewer human driven cars, but ebikes being ridden erratically (40mph against traffic, through red lights, on the sidewalk, etc.) sucks.
> It sounds like you don't live in a city with an ebike delivery problem

Oh but I do. Or actually, in a city with many delivery ebikes but no "ebike problem" . Why? Because there's bike infrastructure. Meaning segregated lanes to ride a bike (and overall good urban design in general).

On a given street or road there's a place to drive a car, a place do ride a bike, a place for the bus/tram to go, and a place to walk. Is this really so difficult? Tell me if you please, in a city where there's only a place to drive and a place to walk, where exactly are bikes (delivery or not) supposed to go?

Cars kill several times more than even the most maniac ebike riders possibly can. They also emit pollution that kills swathes of people (an invisible, background death). It's just common sense.

Thats funny. Non scrupulous ebikers rip through pedestrian sections.

And i agree with the other commentator, you obviously dont live in a dense city with e bike delivery.

> Non scrupulous ebikers rip through pedestrian sections.

You're right. A car driver would never rip through a crosswalk or kill someone.

That argument is stupid. Cars kill several times more people than ebikes ever will. It's nonsensical to be worried about a minor issue while treating a much more serious one as a fact of life.

> you obviously dont live in a dense city with e bike delivery.

Yeah but I do. The thing is I also live in a city with bike infrastructure, so bikes (delivery or not) can move safely without annoying anyone.

What is missing from the discussion? If you want somebody to stop what they’re doing, see how to provide/offer alternatives that meet the needs they’re getting out of what you don’t want them to do. Not very difficult to understand as a fundamental principle of life, but seemingly difficult to operate by?
Nzer but some cultural overlap between here and Aus, that’s far too advanced. Auckland for eg has almost unusable busses and trains but the answer to congestion is apparently to make it impossible to park in the cbd, rather than make any actual improvements.
I am in my early 40s and live in Bondi. Fatbikes are everywhere and it is absolutely NOT a problem.

99% of the time they’re used safely. It’s pretty clutch to see a kid pull a thumb trigger to do a wheelie. Besides, if you mess your bike up by dropping it, there’s no hiding it from your parents.

Article is exaggerated for the clicks.

If you find yourself getting outraged, come touch grass by touching the sand at our beautiful beach. Life is actually pretty awesome, and kids having fun & letting off steam with e-bikes is a fantastic use of technology.

The obvious answer is identifying plates, just as how we prevent mayhem from cars. No need to chase, just send a summons in the mail. Of course they're a privacy vulnerability, so they should really be reimagined to be something like epaper that changes every few minutes, only decodeable for bona fide purposes by the vehicle registry, with a logged audit chain. Also if you want people to respect the law then the government needs to resist the urge to use the registration as a pretext to levy fees and taxes.
Children of wealthy people, living in wealthy beach suburbs, wreaking havoc in their own neighbourhood.

They might be coming in from the slums of Vaucluse.

Fatbikes are not expensive. The Chinese jumped on this market.

In my own country you can frequently see 12 year old boys and girls on fatbikes. And they go fast. When a fatbike collides with a pedestrian the end result is not pretty.

During the warmer months I regularly come into town for a sidewalk dinner in an east coast city in the US. There's a protected bike lane and the combination of vehicles (and pedestrians crossing) is a bit terrifying--as is the fact that stopping at the red light for the next cross street is inconsistent at best.
The fatbikes the kids are riding might not be expensive, but their parents houses are.

You would have to ride a long way from Bondi to find a neighbourhood with less than a $5mil average house price.

Amsterdam also declared war against fatbikes. There are plenty of electrical bikes in Amsterdam, but only fatbikes are the problem according to the Amsterdam City Government.

It seems they are targeted as a proxy for the people who drive them, which are generally younger people.

Maybe every year we should ban the car brands with most accidents. Kinda the same idea?

> "I compare it to Covid," says Harold Scruby, the chairman of the Pedestrian Council of Australia. "It starts here and if they don't put a stop to it…" he trails off as he contemplates the apparently inexorable spread of teenagers on illegal fatbikes.

Most modern news writing needs more flourish such as this.

Would have been a better flourish if Harold used Herpes as the comparison rather than Covid.
Harold Scruby and his "Pedestrian Council of Australia" is one man and a fax machine who's been blaming victims for decades. Any news media who quotes him without pointing this out loses all authority.
this makes it even better. haha.
It is amusing to me that we had articles about DOGE flagged but this is considered worthy of discussion.
Many thousands of people die every day in car crashes and this is thought to be just a fact of life as natural as the sun rising. Suddenly a couple of teenagers doing wheelies is a menace.

Just build some fucking bike lanes, all you need is literally concrete blocks and green paint. Spend a fraction of what you spend on highway widenings on this and your problem is gone.

Rich people inconvenienced suddenly by something that's been in other neighborhoods for years. It's serious now.