Why Breaking the Rules Sometimes Looks More Logical Than Following Them

 There’s a lot of noise right now about dirt bikes and e‑bikes weaving through traffic, doing wheelies, and generally causing chaos on the roads. People are angry, the media is loud, and everyone seems to have an opinion. But before we all point fingers, I can’t help noticing something strange: the same government that didn’t want these riders on social media now complains that they’re not behaving the way we want them to. I haven’t seen any of them scrolling Instagram while doing a wheelie — so technically, that part’s a win.

What really gets me is the comparison between what these riders are doing and what the rest of us put up with every day. Yes, they cut through traffic. Yes, they ignore the rules. But are they the only ones acting irrationally, or are they just reacting to a system that barely works?

I’ve sat at red lights for minutes at a time, watching the world stand still. I’ve been stuck in peak‑hour traffic where a single set of lights lets one or two cars through per cycle. I’ve waited at a green light behind someone who’s clearly daydreaming, and I’m the one who gets fined if I move too early — yet nobody gets fined for wasting everyone’s time by not moving at all.

And then there’s the toll roads. We, the taxpayers, paid for these roads. We were told they’d get us around quicker. But one breakdown and the whole thing turns into a parking lot. The M5 was supposedly “paid off” years ago, yet we still pay a toll every time we use it. It’s like buying a can of Coke, drinking it, and then having to go back to the shop and pay a fee every time you take another sip. My road, my money — and somehow I still get punished for using it.

I can get a speeding fine on a road I paid for. I can lose double demerits on a road I paid for. It starts to feel like I must really hate myself for building it. Meanwhile, the dirt‑bike riders avoid the tolls, avoid the gridlock, avoid the cameras, and avoid the whole circus entirely. They’re not stuck behind someone who refuses to move on a green light. They’re not paying $6.95 for the privilege of sitting in traffic. They’re not being charged for using something they already funded.

And it’s not just dirt bikes. Now we’re seeing debates about scooters and e‑bikes because children have been injured or killed while riding them. The response is always the same: regulate them, ban them, restrict them. Yet children are also injured and killed in car accidents, and nobody suggests banning children from cars. We accept that cars are part of life, so we focus on safety, not elimination.

Scooters and e‑bikes started as kids’ toys — simple, fun, harmless. Now they’ve become a way for ordinary commuters to get around quicker, especially in cities where traffic barely moves. But the moment adults start using them as a practical solution, suddenly they’re treated like a threat that needs to be controlled. It raises a strange question: at what point did the government gain the authority to regulate toys?

Sometimes it feels like we’re heading toward a world where everything needs a rule, a licence, or a penalty attached. What’s next — a bill requiring all Barbie dolls to be gender‑neutral? A law making a child’s toy tip‑truck illegal if the imaginary load isn’t covered properly? It sounds ridiculous, but that’s the direction things seem to drift when regulation becomes the default response to every problem.

And here’s another contradiction: for years, people were fined for riding bicycles on footpaths. It was treated as dangerous, irresponsible, unacceptable. Yet now Australia Post drives small bike‑like cars on the footpath, and nobody blinks. Uber Eats riders zip along footpaths every night, dodging pedestrians, and somehow that’s just part of modern life. The rules didn’t change — just the people breaking them.

So again, it makes me wonder: are the dirt‑bike riders the reckless ones, or are they simply refusing to participate in a system that often feels irrational? Maybe the real issue isn’t the bikes. Maybe it’s the system that makes breaking the rules look more efficient than following them.