Immigrant food delivery cyclists and e-bike riders are causing traffic chaos and endangering lives by illegally entering tunnels and motorways in Sydney and Melbourne.
Road operator Transurban said the phenomenon was increasingly common in both cities, with Melbourne seeing a sharp rise over the past year and Sydney tunnels needing to be shut down weekly to remove stranded riders.
Each time a rider is detected in a tunnel, the toll operator is forced to shut down a lane of traffic, reduce speed to 40km per hour and send an emergency vehicle in to retrieve them, infuriating motorists.
But delivery workers blamed “confusing” apps, while labor law experts said the problem was being caused by language difficulties and lack of familiarity with Australian roads.
One Melbourne rider told Nine News the delivery platform software often got him into trouble.
“My app is confusing, sometimes internet slow,” he said in broken English.
UTS Faculty of Law Professor Joellen Riley said the breaches were largely committed by foreigners.
“It is often new migrants … often their English language is not great, their local knowledge is not great,” she said.
Transurban head of safety Liz Waller said in May that incidents on its Melbourne network were up 50% from last year.
“Even though there are signs saying cyclists are banned, they just end up in there,” Ms Waller told The Age.
“The issue really is the tunnels are not designed for cyclists or scooters – it’s just not a safe environment.”
In NSW riders face a $302 fine for entering tunnels but Transurban said food delivery workers were getting caught inside the busy Eastern Distributor alone at least once a week.
“That’s causing significant delays for the whole network,” Alisa Hitchcock from Transurban said.
Almost 2 million immigrants have been allowed into Australia by the Labor government since 2022, leading to an increase in third world behaviour, demands to allow Hindu funeral pyres at cemeteries, and complaints about overcrowded temples.
Header image: Food delivery riders stuck in tunnels in Melbourne, left, and Sydney, right (Transurban)
