We Ride Urges Strong Bike Presence in National EV Policy

Canberra, ACT

Any government incentives to promote electric transportation in Australia needs to include e-bikes, according to a submission being prepared by bicycle advocacy organisations for the Federal Government’s consultation for a National Electric Vehicle Strategy.

We Ride Australia is coordinating a joint submission to the strategy and is inviting bike industry members to contribute to the submission or to put forward their own.

We Ride has liaised with State and national bicycle advocacy groups to prepare the joint submission, which calls for:

• Any national electric vehicle strategy to include the promotion and growth of electric bicycles
• A large focus on last-mile freight delivery by cargo bikes and other micromobility vehicles
• Acknowledgement of the importance of transitioning to e-bikes and other lower-emission transport options to achieve sustainability outcomes

We Ride chief executive Peter Bourke said they were among the key points raised during a meeting of State and national advocacy groups last week.

“We’re also encouraging industry members to make submissions during the consultation, which is scheduled to close on 30th October,” Peter said.

“We will provide a copy of our joint submission to the wider industry, a week out from that deadline, and we would welcome the industry to use the information provided to put in their own submissions.

“Alternatively, if industry members believe they have information that would be beneficial to the organisation’s combined submission, we encourage them to provide it to We Ride or Bicycle Industries Australia ASAP.”

He said there was strong consensus among all bicycle organisations to work together on a shared submission because:

• It was important to achieve a consistent and amplified message.
• Impact of NEVS will have a “strong ability to be utilised in electric vehicle strategies and actions for each state”

Peter said the submission would draw heavily on the mountain of work already done by Bicycle Queensland to investigate and assert its position on electric vehicle policy.

“While the Federal Government’s consultation paper for the strategy has posed 21 questions, we will be focusing our energies on responding to those questions relevant to our industry,” he said.

See the Federal Government’s consultation paper

For further information on the bicycle advocacy group submission or to provide information, contact Peter Bourke on peter@weride.org.au

2022 Cycling Luminaries Awards

We Ride Australia has released a list of finalists for its 2022 Cycling Luminaries Awards being held next month.

The announcement of finalists was accompanied by news the list of awards has been expanded from three to four, to differential between industry leaders in professional and voluntary roles.

“The independent judging panel made the decision to split the professional and volunteer leaders because of the sheer number of high-quality nominations,” Peter said.

“It is also valuable to make the distinction between those people who display strong leadership as part of their professional roles and those people who are volunteering their time.”

A total of 42 nominations were received for this year’s awards. See below for the list of finalists.

The 2022 Cycling Luminaries Awards gala dinner, being held on 25th November at Sydney’s Royal Randwick Racecourse, will be part of the inaugural Australian Micromobility Conference, an event that will bring together industry leaders, national advocacy organisations and government decision makers.

2022 Cycling Luminaries Awards finalists:

Leadership

• Marie Lawton
• Duncan Murray
• Sam Reich
• The Hon Rita Saffioti MP
• The Hon Rob Stokes MP

Bike Culture

• A Metre matters – AGF
• Bike library – See Change and Switched On Cycles ACT
• Bikes Palya – Bike SA
• Galiwin’ku – Belinda Morton
• WA DOT

Infrastructure

• Cooks River – Canterbury Bankstown
• Dirtz – Geoff Cartwright
• Pop up lanes – City of Sydney