SA councils want the power to ban e-bikes from problem paths, starting with Glenelg's Coast Park

South Australia's councils have put their case to the state's review of personal mobility devices and e-bikes, and the headline ask is control. The Local Government Association of South Australia lodged its submission in mid August, and it wants councils to keep the ability to seek restrictions on e-bikes and e-scooters in specific locations where there are demonstrated safety or accessibility problems.

Seven recommendations

• Adopt a national standard for e-bikes
• Strengthen enforcement powers
• Improve rider education
• Collect better data on crashes and dangerous riding
• Keep investing in safe and connected active transport infrastructure
• Stronger product stewardship for lithium-ion batteries, given the fire risk when they are dumped in household bins
• Clearer responsibilities between state and local government, with councils able to respond to problem areas in their own communities

LGA President Mayor Heather Holmes-Ross said councils are usually the first to hear local concerns, and the message is that e-bikes and e-scooters are creating growing safety worries on shared paths and in busy public spaces. The submission is explicit that councils support compliant devices as part of the transport mix; the target is illegal and modified machines, unsafe riding, and the gap between the rules and anyone's ability to enforce them.

Holdfast Bay goes further

The City of Holdfast Bay, which covers Glenelg, Brighton, Seacliff and Kingston Park, has written directly to Infrastructure and Transport Minister Joe Szakacs asking for a legislative mechanism that would allow e-bikes and e-scooters to be prohibited on the Coast Park shared path between The Broadway at Glenelg and Kingston Park. Mayor Amanda Wilson said residents had spent the past year raising dangerous riding, excessive speeds, near misses and modified devices, and that while the council backs compliant e-bikes as sustainable transport, community safety has to come first. Neighbouring Onkaparinga's Mayor Moira Were reported the same pattern along her council's coast and shared-use paths.

The context

The push follows the arrest of six boys aged 14 to 16 on 16 August after police alleged they rode modified e-bikes through Adelaide's CBD, running red lights and narrowly missing pedestrians, with the bikes modified to the point of legally being motorcycles. The RAA and the Australian Medical Association have separately called for an under-16 ban and police powers to destroy illegal devices. The state review opened in June 2026 and is the vehicle through which any of these changes would come.