The mild climate and flat landscape of Perth makes it ideal for bicycling, and just as perfect for electric bicycles. If you're a morning person then you might look forward to a ride in the morning, but not be so keen on cycling home after a tiring day at work. An electric bike, providing minimal assistance in to work, but more assistance home, would be a great solution. However, due to archaic laws, few electric bikes are sold or used in Perth.
In the Netherlands one in eight bicycles sold is electric, and 8% of the population now owns an electric bike. Note that there are two types of electric bike, the pedelec, where power provided by pedalling is enhanced by the motor, and throttle-controlled, which does not require pedalling. Pedelecs are far more sophisticated and useful, and are what this post will concentrate on. The development of the pedelec was encouraged by the Japanese government to give more mobility to the elderly, where it has been very successful.
Western Australia has some strange rules regarding electric bicycles. To not be considered a motor vehicle the motor must not exceed 200 watts. This compares with the 250 watt limit in most countries, making importation troublesome. When the motor is active, the rider must be aged at least sixteen years old, and the bike cannot be ridden on shared-use paths, i.e. cycle paths on which pedestrians may walk.
For a number of weeks I have ridden a European 250 watt Kalkhoff pedelec, which provides motor assistance up to 30 km/h. The motor multiplies the power you put in through the pedals, and has three settings, 100%, 200% and 300%. At 100%, if you put in 100 W of power the motor will provide a boost of 100 W. Hills will still slow you down, but they won't exhaust you. Unlike throttled bikes, if you don't pedal then the motor will not engage. The average speed of the winner of the Tour de France, a race over quite substantial mountains, is about 40 km/h. If they were riding a pedelec they would get no benefit whenever they were going faster than 30 km/h, but they would find the climbs a whole lot easier!
It is obvious that Western Australia's laws were not devised by someone who had ever ridden a pedelec. Luckily, there is no way that anyone other than the rider can tell if the motor is engaged. It is virtually silent, and you can go no faster than a reasonably fit cyclist is able. In accelerating from standstill and climbing a hill your pedalling is most enhanced, but its effect is to make you ride with more comfort rather than more speed. The law preventing electric bikes from using shared paths seems peculiar to Western Australia, and is particularly misguided. There is no reason than a pedelec is any more or less dangerous than a standard bicycle. The law eliminates a common scenario of a fit cyclist on a normal bike riding with a less-fit person riding a pedelec, a combination which I have found works very well.
If pedelecs were readily available in Perth, and if the laws were the same as those in Europe then I would consider purchasing one. It would be used for commuting, replacing my car two or more days a week. It would also encourage recreational cycling, as I could go much further without tiring, thereby greatly expanding the regions reachable from my home.