Mayor Tom Tate responds to the e-bike chaos & reveals plans

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Yeah, now we've got to get into it.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
I think this e bike, I mean, what are you
getting reports of of? It's pretty it's pretty dire.

Speaker 1 (00:08):
I mean I would use the worst lawless because there's
no law governing it, meaning that you know, it's got
to be registration licensed and really road rules in place.
I mean every other vehicle that's going fast and can
be dangerous, that's what we have. And e bike has

(00:33):
come to an age where you know, they can do
up to sixty kilometers an hour and that's just too much.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
But there's a lot of chaos going around. It's not
just behavior riding the bikes now because of the school holidays,
there's like big swarms of maybe thirty forty kids on
the bike starting around, and they're encouraging each other to
play up. And there's been instances of them trying water
bombs filled with rock at cars when they're just going

(01:01):
about their business driving. So it's a connection to bad
behavior as well as just riding recklessly.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
I mean, the young minds are just too young to
be able to be given well, i'd say a vehicle
that fast, and of course at that it's they're egging
each other on. Somebody is going to get hurt out
of this, and I would we've got to legislated very

(01:30):
quickly because it's not going to stop. Otherwise, to do nothing,
we'll not get any result. My attitude is going hard first.
We can always wind it back when it's all come down.
And of course the parents are also responsible, but they're
not there when the group of kids are together. It's
not like the parents are they're picking backing the bike

(01:51):
and telling them how to drive or ride. It's not
in the parents' hands, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Well, that's what Acting Inspector Braden Murphy just said to us.
He said, I'd like to appeal to pair is to
not get these bikes for them and to understand what
the bikes are and have they modified them. And I
feel that's all he can really say at the moment
because there.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
Is no laws.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
So can you unpack what you think the law should be.
One of our listeners actually said, even people with motorized
scooters like little old ladies have to register their motorized
scooter and they're certainly not going as fast as these
e bikes. So what laws are you going to pitch to?
David chris A fully to push through.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
The bikes has got to be at that's only allowed
to have a maximum speed on their chip. Get the
expert in, But in my own view is that twenty
kilometers in our is way maximum that they shouldn't be
able to have the capability of going faster than that.
I agree. It's not a long haul transport, so it's

(02:48):
really a short haul just going up the shop and back,
and that's faster than walking, and so it can be helpful, useful,
that's one thing. The second law is that well, for
us to be able to monitor it, it's got to
be in an elect registration registration and also you've got

(03:09):
to have to have a license.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
What about the bikes that are actually illegal, the ones
that don't have the pedals on them and they're virtually electronic motorbikes, you.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
Know with horning. When you've got cars that illegal, it
gets confiscated, right and you know this sort of thing.
If it's not legal, it's got to be confiscated, and
confiscation means means that you take it away never return.

(03:37):
You know, I'm not against crushing it either.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
We had some people upset about that on a yesterday,
but that's just the parents obviously have to pay for it.
But if they're doing wrong things, they have to have
hard consequences.

Speaker 3 (03:49):
If they're illegal, they shouldn't have bought them for them
in the first.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
If you do the right thing, no big deal. You
know everyone's fine, they're safe and enjoy beautiful. You know
our lifestyle is good, but this will spoil our lifestyle
if the kids can just keep going and get away
with it. Thank you so much for your time this morning, Pleasure.
Thanks for having me on