Thursday 21 August 2014

Hansard of the Legislative Council

VEHICLE AND TRAFFIC AMENDMENT

(POWER-ASSISTED PEDAL CYCLES) BILL 2014 (No. 11)

Mr FINCH (Rosevears) - Mr President, this bill virtually allows cyclists to use the assistance of a 250watt light bulb compared to the previous 200watt one. This is to be commended. However, I would sow the seed - how about a 500watt light bulb? Perhaps we will get to that in trying to reduce petrol consumption a bit further down the track. Yes, there are cyclists, particularly in hilly Launceston, who could use a little help to get up the steep bits and even the 200watt limit was some help. Of course you just keep pedalling. I can understand a limit on speed, 25 kilometres an hour can scare some older cyclists but why limit the assistance to one globe and a half? I would have thought that 500 watts would have been right.

In some European countries, as mentioned earlier, there is an intermediate class between pushbikes and motorbikes, the mopeds, that allows a 50 cubic centimetre petrol engine without the need of the usual licensing and registration. The 50cc's allows you to go up just about any hill, even following the member for Western Tiers. You can do it without pedalling and fuel use is minimal. Mopeds can still be governed and not exceed the 25 kilometreunderpower limitation that might want to be established on them. Battery and motor technology is increasing rapidly as we speak. Let us apply it to cyclists, particularly those who need a little help. A light globe or two is much cheaper than running a car with one person sitting in it, as we see so often. I support the bill.