“Maybe people shouldn’t be riding street-rated motor vehicles without a license in places intended for pedal bikes” isn’t exactly the worst example of government overreach I’ve ever seen.
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But gubmit is ALWAYS BAD, MAAAANNNN… /s
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Or a Tie Fighter’s ion engine?
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In UK an e-bike must be pedalled to get battery assistance. No hand throttle allowed unless off-road/private land. Max battery power/speed limits. More power, more speed than that and ability to ride without pedalling and it becomes a licensable vehicle needing to be registered and insured and needing a driving licence. Makes a clear distinction as to what kids can and cannot ride.
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also, acceleration. it takes a bit to get up to speed under pedal power, but ebikes can be instant.
i’m all for it.
ringing a bell can help pedestrians with normal bikes but traveling fast, the necessary reaction time - and the motivation of the rider to ring a bell, or horn - isn’t there
forcing fast e bikes to have a noticable sound would solve a lot more [ eta: of the safety ] problems than licensing i think. [ licensing doesn’t make anything more safe in and of itself ]
( im trying to imagine a cop car pulling over an ebike and have a hard time imagining that even working )
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And you’re not allowed to ride a standard e-bike* in the UK if you’re under 14.
I’m amazed at how badly the US is handling e-bikes. They have the potential to replace cars for a lot of short trips with consequent reductions in congestion and pollution, and improvements in public health, but allowing even the lowest class to use 750W motors and assist to 20mph just fuels anti-ebike hysteria. Of course, anti-bike hysteria’s not exactly unusual in the English-speaking world, but it’s much easier to group ebikes with acoustic bikes if they’re only putting out as much power as a reasonably fit human.
*Max sustained power 250W; assist cuts out at 25km/h; assist only operates when you’re pedalling
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We spend a lot of time in state park campgrounds, people of all ages on those things are dangerous but I doubt a liscense would prevent the reckless riding.
Just last week we were at a traffic light, an older couple crossed a 5 lane highway on a couple large e bikes. They needed to makes a quick right turn once they were back on the sidewalk.
They both were going too fast and rode right into a wrought-iron fence. They were okay but sheesh, they should have been pedaling across or walking the bikes.
I don’t know what the solution is but some sort of training is needed.
That being said we’re getting to the point of looking into a pair, we enjoy biking when we’re camping but the hills are really killing us. Walking is easier on some of the hills.
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I can hit 30km/h on pedal power from the lights faster than cars, though they quickly overtake me after about 100m.
I think people forget how fast a regular bike can be with a reasonably fit person pedalling.
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A license would limit who is allowed to own or use specific categories of electric bicycles, just as it limits who is allowed to ride gasoline-powered motor scooters.
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Why would speed of acceleration hurt others?
I was thinking mostly of collisions where speed (or really, the deceleration caused when you hit something) and mass are the primary concerns.
California already caps e-bikes to 750 watts and 20 mph, so I’m not sure where this massive acceleration or speed people are worried about is coming from.
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About NYC:
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E-bikes were illegal until only about a few years ago.
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If it goes more than 25 MPH it is treated like a motorcycle in terms of insurance requirements. (Liability only, no personal injury coverage)
The latter is important because of you are injured riding one that has a top speed >25 MPH, you’re screwed.
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It also makes it insurable. Allowing private industry to mitigate damages to others by negligent riding.
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Involved with LA’s Bicycle Advisory Committee since 1993 and confirm, this is also the concern of bike ppl of all walks in L.A. There have been many schemes to try to control bicyclists to make politicians look good that are very bad ideas. One thing that confirmed this: I once sent an alert on what a council member was proposing to the head of the council’s transportation committee who replied, “This is a very bad idea.”
In addition to some potential regulations for the very fast e-bikes, a noise or sensor warning can be added or we could have tech to slow down ebikes on specific paths. But generally, stay away from laws that can be used to harass certain types of people in certain places because, basically, laws are not enforced evenly within the borders of our fair city.
Blocking ebikes for certain riders could have a secondary effect of those riders being attracted to the DIY 2 stroke strap-on bike motors which, having those pass you on Ballona for example, are just a nightmare of smog, noise and irresponsible riding. With those, people who don’t GAF kinda self identify. Kids barred from ebikes may start to look up to them.
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On paper, maybe. But in practice it’s quite easy to get faster ones, and there are a lot of them on the road. That’s one of the main things they need to figure out how to control here.
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They can already be arrested for riding them, so what possible benefit is requiring a driver’s license for all the street legal e-bikes going to do?
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Former San Francisco commercial bicycle courier here. E-bikes, like the Honda 50cc moped I rode when younger and dumber, are MOTOR VEHICLES and MUST be regulated as such. I don’t care if the motive power is internal (gas, diesel) or external (steam) combustion, or battery-electric, or anything more than hamsters on a treadmill – if it ain’t human-powered, regulate it.
I’ll favor regulating human-powered vehicles too, if used on public roadways. But what’s next? Licensing all pedestrians, baby strollers, and stealable shopping carts? Requiring everyone in public to carry ID ‘papers’? (Oh wait, that’s already common in USA.)
How I got my first bicycle license plate: Police came to my kindergarten class, checked bikes and serial numbers, and distributed license plates for a small fee. Hey, now I was legal!
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If your e-bike can hit 50 kph then in the US then it is already a motorbike, legally. A Class 2 ebike has to have the motor cut out at 20 mph (32 kph), and a Class 3 ebike at 28 mph (45 mph). Most bike paths (not on roads) I’ve seen only only class 1 and 2 ebikes if they allow any, and some specifically do not allow use of a throttle (which I don’t really understand, but sure, why not).
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most of the stuff you might hit are at the intersections: pedestrians crossing, cars turning, bikes biking. so being suddenly high speed is more dangerous than simply being fast on a straight away. human reaction time is not equal to how fast people can go
and so far, the people i’ve seen on the peddle free ebikes were not being safety conscious. they got them in order to go quickly, and they’re using them that way.
the one exception was today: and they were treating it like a motorcycle, wearing a motorcycle helmet even, and riding the middle of the lane just like a motorcycle or car. that seemed much safer than how ive seen others ride
i myself am a bicyclist. where i’m at, i don’t think i ever see bikes accelerating faster than cars at a light or a stop. ( and unless you’re already ahead of the cars, doing so would be super dangerous if a car suddenly decided to turn )
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Those aren’t mandatory? I am under the impressed they are all over Europe for bicycles.
ETA:
Oh NO! This is annoying me with cars to no end. There’s the opportunity to get a more silent city, by using a silent engine in cars - and here we are to ensure nothing changes because we are used to the noise.
General comment: ALL regulations using fines and other leverages to make cyclist comply to better protect pedestrians go into the wrong direction. The problem is cars. Reclaim the streets for bicycles, make car drivers comply to better protect cyclists. Paris, Copenhagen and many a city in the Netherlands do that to some extent.
I am under the impression that in China, cycling was so widespread that they had it the other way round. A bit like in the early 20th century. Cars had a lobby, and we build our infrastructure for them and made many laws for them.
This is not a one-way road, in my opinion.
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These regulations are rarely policed, and have recently ended in tragedy when they have been. The police will not generally be authorised to chase them or even attempt to stop them.
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