History Lesson: The Automobile - Looking at history and NSW today

History Lesson: The motorcycle - Looking at history and NSW today

It wasn't immediately accepted.

The first practical petrol motorcycles emerged in the 1890s. They were noisy, unreliable, uncomfortable and unfamiliar. People complained about motor vehicles frightening horses, their speed and the danger they posed to other road users.

But something interesting happened. Governments didn't ultimately say: “It's not a car, so it doesn't belong on the road.”

Instead, they developed a new category.The motorcycle.

The technology was different, so the rules could be different too.

In early 1900s, motorcycles existed before many jurisdictions had comprehensive laws governing motor vehicles. There was often a regulatory gap rather than an outright ban.

Then governments began building frameworks around the new technology.

In Britain, the Motor Car Act 1903 introduced registration and licensing and specifically recognised motorcycles, including a separate motorcycle licensing arrangement.

The pattern was:
New technology appears.
to
Existing rules don't quite fit.
to
A new legal category develops.
to
Specific safety and operating rules are introduced.
to
The technology becomes part of the normal transport system.

NSW provides a particularly interesting example.

Motorcycles were appearing in NSW before 1910, but there was not yet a comprehensive statewide motor-vehicle framework.The Motor Traffic Act 1909 changed that.

From 1910, motorcycles were brought into the road system with registration and licensing arrangements — including specific arrangements for motorcycle riders.

By 1911, NSW had 2,203 registered motorcycles, compared with 2,350 motor cars and the rules continued to evolve.

By the 1930s, NSW had detailed motorcycle-specific requirements covering things such as pillion passengers, footrests and sidecars.

The important point is that governments didn't have to solve every possible motorcycle problem before creating a place for motorcycles in the transport system.

They did something more incremental:
* Recognise it.
* Define it.
* Regulate it.
* Learn from experience.
* Refine the rules.

The motorcycle didn't have to become a car to be legitimate.

It became a motorcycle — with rules designed around what it actually was.

Today, a new category of transport technology has emerged: personal electric mobility — PMDs, PEVs and other forms of small electric transport.

In 2021, the National Transport Commission incorporated Personal Mobility Devices (PMDs) into the National Australian Road Rules model framework, creating a nationally developed approach based on objective characteristics such as speed, weight, dimensions, braking and motor type.

The ACT had already recognised PMDs in its road laws, and other jurisdictions have since adopted similar frameworks. Rather than banning an entire category, they have defined the technology, established safety standards and regulated how and where it can be used.
The technology changed. The rules adapted.

Western Australia provides a particularly useful example. WA has created a defined eRideable category covering a range of personal electric mobility devices, with objective limits on things such as weight, dimensions, speed and together with rules governing where and how they can operate.

South Australia, Queensland, and Tasmania have likewise established frameworks for defined forms of personal electric mobility.

In other words, a number of Australian jurisdictions have taken the approach of:
* Define the technology.
* Set technical standards.
* Set operating rules.
* Establish safety responsibilities.
* Then regulate it.

NSW has taken a considerably more restrictive/less progressive approach to the broader category.

The problem with a new technology is often not simply the technology itself.

The problem is that the rules were written before the technology existed.

NSW has instead left most of these devices outside the public-road framework. And that brings us back to the motorcycle.

When the motorcycle appeared, it didn't fit neatly into the transport system that existed before it.

The solution wasn't to require it to become a car.
The solution was to create a category and regulate it according to what it actually was.
That framework then evolved over time.

The same principle doesn't mean every PMD should automatically be legal, or that every device should be treated the same way.

It means something simpler:
A new technology doesn't necessarily have to fit an old category.

We can create a new one.
* Define it.
* Set technical standards.
* Set operating rules.
* Regulate the risks.
* Learn from experience.
* Refine the framework.

That's how the motorcycle went from a strange new machine to a normal part of the transport system. And perhaps the question for NSW isn't whether these new technologies are exactly like bicycles, motorcycles or cars. Perhaps the question is:
Why can't they have their own rules?