Fast ebikes are fine if they share the road with cars and you wear appropriate safety gear. Probably need a license too.
They’re basically motorbikes though and have absolutely no place on cycle lanes where you can expect people to be doing 10-15mph.
“tHiS iS Why We caN’t HAvE NicE thINgs!”
Personally, it took me a while to get over the antipathy for e-bikes stemming from the way a lot of the early mountain riders would pass on uphills in the most dangerous way.
There is always the one asshole that destroys a category for everyone. But fast e-bikes are useful alternatives to both cars and motorcycles. They should be regulated more stringently than slower bikes, maybe give them some kind of registration and licensing requirement, but please don’t demonize the whole category. That said as someone who’s never even put my foot on the pedal of one.
They literally are motorbikes. Just not obnoxiously loud. So they’re a clear improvement. I reckon E-bikes probably wont be as successful as petrol bikes because they don’t meet the goal of pissing off everyone in a 2km radius.
Two words: Aftermarket Boombox!
if they’re sharing the road with cars, and you care more about this than the thousands of cars, trucks and bikes that speed like crazy it just seems like e-pearl clutching.
Too fast.drivers was not the downfall of cars.
Actually yes they totally are lol
The lobby is just so strong that nobody is doing anything about the millions of pedestrian, cyclist and car driver deaths. A lot of the problems with cars could be solved if we limited them to 30kmh inside and close to populated areas.
Agree, this is the problem. e-bikes aren’t worth enough to the people in power.
if we limited them to 30kph
:) - yimby please; but i cant see how this will happen in my country (other than through congestion).
Too fast drivers run over pedestrians, which is generally frowned upon.
This is just a motorbike by another name, and should fall under the same regulations.
They do.
The amount of kids or at most early teens riding these around without any concern for the smalldick-sized-NA-cars makes me think we’ll see an uptick in deaths on the road real soon.
That being said screw all the fuckwits who race electric-anything on the dykes along rivers without a care despite no motor vehicles being allowed there. Assholes kick up loads of dust that you somehow need to avoid by covering your face with shirt/whatever you have and endanger everyone around them including regular cyclists and dogs.
I’ve driven around e-bike riders on several occasions recently because I commute. It’s extremely difficult to notice an e-bike rider when they don’t have lights and are riding fast. If they’re going 20 MPH they can slip into your blind spot without you noticing rapidly. Combine this with a driver who’s not paying full attention and you have an accident.
