This is a question we get a lot in the shop at Beaches Electric Bikes - Narrabeen.
Comments like:
"Sydney drivers are animals and so aggressive toward cyclists"
"It's madness on the roads here in Sydney"
Are often heard when discussing cycling and safety in Sydney and a lot of people mention that they feel safest on the footpath away from the cars.
So let's discuss the legalities of if and when you can ride an ebike on the footpath in our state of NSW.
Firstly, if an ebike complies with the ebike laws of NSW it can be ridden in all the same places as a regular bike, which we refer in the ebike game as 'analog' or 'acoustic' bikes.
So now, it's important to make yourself aware of the rules for analog bikes, as they relate directly to legal ebikes. Here's the laws as written on the NSW Government Transport website:
Rules for bicycle riders
- You can ride side-by-side another bike, but no more than 1.5 metres apart.
- You must use the marked bike lane in your direction if there is one, unless it's impracticle to do so.
- You must give a hand signal when turning right or merging to the right lane. You should do this for about 30 metres before you turn, or change lanes or lane position. You don’t need to give a left or stop signal, or signal when making a hook turn but it's strongly recommended you do.
- You can overtake 2 other bicycle riders who are riding side by side.
- You can overtake on the left of stopped and slow-moving vehicles.
- You can ride to the left of a continuous white edge line.
- You can turn right from the left lane of a roundabout, but you must give way to any vehicle leaving the roundabout.
- You must not ride on a pedestrian crossing. Instead, walk your bike across. You can ride across if there's a bicycle crossing signal. You must obey the signals at crossings.
- You must not be towed by or hold onto another moving vehicle.
- You must keep left of oncoming bicycle riders or pedestrians on a footpath, shared path or separated path.
- You must not carry more people than the bike is designed for. If carrying a passenger, they must be wearing an approved, fitted and fastened helmet.
- You must face forward on the rider’s seat, with one leg on each side and at least one hand on the handlebars.
And here's the answer to the question of this article written in bold in that list of rules:
If you're 16 years or older and not supervising a child under 16 years riding a bike, you can’t ride on the footpath.
However, we must mention here that there is grey area of what is defined as a footpath and what is a designated shared path or separated path. The shared path will have signage above and stencil painting of white bicycles on the path surface and a separated path will usually be painted all green with white bicycles stenciled and signage above.
But due to the fact that many bike paths and shared paths have been installed on existing footpaths and are often disjointed (meaning some times you may have to cross a 6 lane arterial road to get to the next section of the shared or separated bike path) and the fact that cycling infrastructure in NSW is very much an afterthought on roads that were built for suburban sprawl dominated by car usage.
In our area of Sydney's Northern Beaches our local council - Northern Beaches Council - is running a campaign to educate people about safe riding of ebikes - Know the e-bike code
See their helpful little video package here:
In contrast there is an interesting Instagram page devoted to the bad planning of bicycle infrastructure on the Northern Beaches of Sydney - Shit Northern Beaches Cycle Paths. It's humorous and tongue in cheek, but the fact that someone has set up a specific account on this very topic - means we have a bit of a problem.
Ultimately, you want to feel safe when you are riding your bike - whichever kind of bike it is. Things are moving forward in terms of education and infrastructure. But simply the more that people get out and ride their bikes, the more riding will recognized as a transport solution and be given more space to flourish - Ride On!
