Two bills moving through the California legislature this year could change how e-bikes are bought, ridden, and regulated across the state. One would require
I’m a bicyclist and I think this is not a bad idea. Class 3 e-bikes have engines which can accelerate to a top speed of nearly 50 km/h which makes them practically slow motorcycles at that point. A collision between a pedestrian and an e-bike accelerated to top speed will send at least one person to the hospital. And the risk of cyclists who blatantly flaunt traffic laws is also present, even though most people in my city tend to follow the law. There’s a bike path in my city which is used as both a commuter route and a recreational route, and some people ride their e-bikes at crazy speeds just centimetres away from children riding their tricycles.
What I wouldn’t support is the extra paperwork burden. Opponents of this law are right when they say that it should be made easier to switch from driving to using an e-bike, not harder. But minimal registration formalities are probably fine, as long as they are made relatively easy. Maybe something like a registration plate which is affixed at the factory and which you have to register using the DMV website or an app. This would also make tracking down stolen bikes easier.
Japanese moped laws cap them at 30 kph even. All ebikes must be peddle assist, may not have a throttle, and the assist will turn off at a designated speed (17kph I think?) as a point of reference.
I’m a cyclist and I’m against this. If they’re effectively electric motorcycles then just license them as motorcycles, end of story. People are getting brain fog over the fact that they’re cheap and popular with kids. We don’t speed cap any other vehicles, we just license them appropriately. Let’s just continue doing that. It’s wacky to me that this isn’t obvious to most people.
Seriously, if they don’t require pedals to move it’s a motorcycle or moped. I use an e-bike to commute but it doesn’t work without the pedals. It’s still a bike. If you want to tax me for it then give me my own damn lane
Mopeds have pedals but mostly function by a throttle. I never knew a single person that used the pedals unless they were out of gas. My bike (class 2, mid-engine) does not work without pedals and makes commuting feasible in areas with a lot of hills. I always pedal past the 28mph max and it’s 0 engine assist in those moments. You going to regulate that then you need to regulate all the spandex guys on the weekends too.
They’re not the same as motorcycles though. They’re comparable to motorcycles, but they are not quite the same. There’s no reason to have a binary system. There is a class of bikes which are more than recreational e-bikes but less than full-on motorcycles. There needs to be a class of regulation in between bicycles and slow e-bikes (which should require no registration at all) and motorcycles (which require a special driving licence to operate).
The fact that we don’t “speed cap” any other vehicles isn’t a good argument for not limiting the speed of e-bikes. All arguments for why ordinary personal vehicles shouldn’t have speed governors limiting them to, say, 160 km/h, basically boil down to “It makes me feel bad” or “I think it’s fun to drive fast”.
They already have limits to 28mph/45kmh for ebicycles. If they go above that then they should require a license. Illinois’s Senate agreed on a bill that now needs considering in the house for ebikes that exceed that, requires registration, and additionally puts age limits on them. That seems reasonable.
Changing the existing laws to be more restrictive beyond that is unnecessary. We don’t need more fragmentation of rules between state(in US) and probably countries where applicable.
45 km/h is still freakishly fast for all but professional cyclists. I do not agree that more restrictions are unnecessary. A simple, paperwork-minimal registration scheme would allow proper accountability for reckless bicycle-riding (which is uncommon but still happens) and would deter theft, especially since e-bikes cost hundreds to thousands of dollars, pounds, or euros. The problem with fast e-bikes (especially those which can accelerate without pedalling) is that they let anyone’s grandmother reach the speeds of professionals without actually being an experienced cyclist. Ideally, there should be three levels:
Bicycles and low-speed e-bikes, where registration is not required
Moderate-speed e-bikes which can accelerate without the use of the pedals, where minimal registration formalities are required (namely, affixing a registration plate that comes with the bike along with registering an owner online). The registration process should be free of charge, one-off, and should not take more than 5 minutes to complete. I am against requiring anything which resembles a driving licence for these e-bikes.
High-speed e-bikes and motorcycles, where ordinary vehicle registration, motorcycle licences, and inspections are required.
In the United States, we have a tool to deal with fragmentation in state laws: uniform acts.
An adult in half decent physical shape can hit 45 km/h on level ground for a short time on a 9 year old midrange racing bike. Source: I own a 9 year old midrange racing bike.
FYI 45 kph on a non-motorized bicycle is not really “freakishly fast”, that’s a normal downhill speed on your average middle age guy’s weekend workout. And I think this concern is already addressed by signed speed limits.
That’s also not a speed you hit on a pedestrian walkway between intersections with crossings where you have to look out for cars or pedestrians stepping in front of you.
I think the most I’ve ever clocked on a bicycle was 56 km/h (as I didn’t usually ride with a speedometer and me being in good enough shape to do that without having to go downhill was before I had a phone with a decent enough battery to run Strava or something for every little ride), but that was out of town, on a straight road. On a pedestrian walkway that requires me to stop or slow down every hundred or two hundred meters, it would take effort to even consistently hit 25 km/h. But with a motor assisting you, you can hit higher speeds much quicker.
The spirit of my complaint is that we should just appropriately license them. If practically that means a new class of license then yes, that’s how you license them.
That is the maximum speed they can go which is like saying people drive cars at the top speed consistently when most people ride an e-bike at 15-20mph. Frankly I think these bills are eroding solidarity in the bike community…
I don’t believe most people who actually have a driving licence have ever driven a car at its top speed (or if they have, maybe only once or twice on a long, straight stretch of rural motorway with no traffic).
However, my personal observation, at least in my city, is that given the opportunity, people will ride their bikes as fast as their equipment will allow. On straight sections of the bike path which I mentioned in the previous post, bicycle riders will kick their bikes into seventh gear and e-bike riders go full throttle. That path has no legal speed limit, and even if it did, there is no way to enforce it.
Ebikes here are capped at 25km/h, but many people, especially food couriers, tune them up. And they regularly ride through pedestrian zones. Yes, number plates are a good idea.
I’m talking about reckless bikers racing through the intended safe space for pedestrians. Bikers who ignore the network of bike lanes and even bike roads that have been reserved specially for them that completely surrounds the pedestrian zone.
I’m a bicyclist and I think this is not a bad idea. Class 3 e-bikes have engines which can accelerate to a top speed of nearly 50 km/h which makes them practically slow motorcycles at that point. A collision between a pedestrian and an e-bike accelerated to top speed will send at least one person to the hospital. And the risk of cyclists who blatantly flaunt traffic laws is also present, even though most people in my city tend to follow the law. There’s a bike path in my city which is used as both a commuter route and a recreational route, and some people ride their e-bikes at crazy speeds just centimetres away from children riding their tricycles.
What I wouldn’t support is the extra paperwork burden. Opponents of this law are right when they say that it should be made easier to switch from driving to using an e-bike, not harder. But minimal registration formalities are probably fine, as long as they are made relatively easy. Maybe something like a registration plate which is affixed at the factory and which you have to register using the DMV website or an app. This would also make tracking down stolen bikes easier.
Japanese moped laws cap them at 30 kph even. All ebikes must be peddle assist, may not have a throttle, and the assist will turn off at a designated speed (17kph I think?) as a point of reference.
Japan also has adequate public transportation and walkable streets everywhere
I’m a cyclist and I’m against this. If they’re effectively electric motorcycles then just license them as motorcycles, end of story. People are getting brain fog over the fact that they’re cheap and popular with kids. We don’t speed cap any other vehicles, we just license them appropriately. Let’s just continue doing that. It’s wacky to me that this isn’t obvious to most people.
Seriously, if they don’t require pedals to move it’s a motorcycle or moped. I use an e-bike to commute but it doesn’t work without the pedals. It’s still a bike. If you want to tax me for it then give me my own damn lane
If your bike has a motor and pedals how is it not a moped?
Mopeds have pedals but mostly function by a throttle. I never knew a single person that used the pedals unless they were out of gas. My bike (class 2, mid-engine) does not work without pedals and makes commuting feasible in areas with a lot of hills. I always pedal past the 28mph max and it’s 0 engine assist in those moments. You going to regulate that then you need to regulate all the spandex guys on the weekends too.
They’re not the same as motorcycles though. They’re comparable to motorcycles, but they are not quite the same. There’s no reason to have a binary system. There is a class of bikes which are more than recreational e-bikes but less than full-on motorcycles. There needs to be a class of regulation in between bicycles and slow e-bikes (which should require no registration at all) and motorcycles (which require a special driving licence to operate).
The fact that we don’t “speed cap” any other vehicles isn’t a good argument for not limiting the speed of e-bikes. All arguments for why ordinary personal vehicles shouldn’t have speed governors limiting them to, say, 160 km/h, basically boil down to “It makes me feel bad” or “I think it’s fun to drive fast”.
They already have limits to 28mph/45kmh for ebicycles. If they go above that then they should require a license. Illinois’s Senate agreed on a bill that now needs considering in the house for ebikes that exceed that, requires registration, and additionally puts age limits on them. That seems reasonable.
Changing the existing laws to be more restrictive beyond that is unnecessary. We don’t need more fragmentation of rules between state(in US) and probably countries where applicable.
45 km/h is still freakishly fast for all but professional cyclists. I do not agree that more restrictions are unnecessary. A simple, paperwork-minimal registration scheme would allow proper accountability for reckless bicycle-riding (which is uncommon but still happens) and would deter theft, especially since e-bikes cost hundreds to thousands of dollars, pounds, or euros. The problem with fast e-bikes (especially those which can accelerate without pedalling) is that they let anyone’s grandmother reach the speeds of professionals without actually being an experienced cyclist. Ideally, there should be three levels:
In the United States, we have a tool to deal with fragmentation in state laws: uniform acts.
An adult in half decent physical shape can hit 45 km/h on level ground for a short time on a 9 year old midrange racing bike. Source: I own a 9 year old midrange racing bike.
A professional can sustain that speed.
FYI 45 kph on a non-motorized bicycle is not really “freakishly fast”, that’s a normal downhill speed on your average middle age guy’s weekend workout. And I think this concern is already addressed by signed speed limits.
That’s also not a speed you hit on a pedestrian walkway between intersections with crossings where you have to look out for cars or pedestrians stepping in front of you.
I think the most I’ve ever clocked on a bicycle was 56 km/h (as I didn’t usually ride with a speedometer and me being in good enough shape to do that without having to go downhill was before I had a phone with a decent enough battery to run Strava or something for every little ride), but that was out of town, on a straight road. On a pedestrian walkway that requires me to stop or slow down every hundred or two hundred meters, it would take effort to even consistently hit 25 km/h. But with a motor assisting you, you can hit higher speeds much quicker.
Why are you biking on a pedestrian walkway? That seems like it’s own seperate problem.
Uh most people don’t cycle in car lanes unless going very fast.
The spirit of my complaint is that we should just appropriately license them. If practically that means a new class of license then yes, that’s how you license them.
It’s basically old people trying to take away kid’s mobility.
That is the maximum speed they can go which is like saying people drive cars at the top speed consistently when most people ride an e-bike at 15-20mph. Frankly I think these bills are eroding solidarity in the bike community…
I don’t believe most people who actually have a driving licence have ever driven a car at its top speed (or if they have, maybe only once or twice on a long, straight stretch of rural motorway with no traffic).
However, my personal observation, at least in my city, is that given the opportunity, people will ride their bikes as fast as their equipment will allow. On straight sections of the bike path which I mentioned in the previous post, bicycle riders will kick their bikes into seventh gear and e-bike riders go full throttle. That path has no legal speed limit, and even if it did, there is no way to enforce it.
Ebikes here are capped at 25km/h, but many people, especially food couriers, tune them up. And they regularly ride through pedestrian zones. Yes, number plates are a good idea.
Number plates are adding a road block to a vehicle that is better for society than a car.
We need more ebikes, not less.
Put a bike lane next to the ped zone.
I’m talking about reckless bikers racing through the intended safe space for pedestrians. Bikers who ignore the network of bike lanes and even bike roads that have been reserved specially for them that completely surrounds the pedestrian zone.