Comment by seanmcdirmid
4 years ago
> A "bicycle" that can accelerate without the need to pedal at all is an electric motorcycle, no matter if you put pedal on it or not.
That sounds very American. Don’t we have Vespa scooters and mopeds in the USA as well? There are plenty of bike formats between bicycle and motorbikes.
In China most e-bikes aren’t pedal assists and no one would ever claim they were car road worthy vehicles, they got bike lanes or the side of the road, and are not allowed on the ring road. American bike lanes seems to be recreational, whereas in other countries that are oriented much more at daily life and more heavily used.
Vespa style scooters are motorcycles in many US states, but there are exceptions.
Mopeds with engines under 50cc and that have pedals are often treated differently than motorcycles but some states still require licensing and registration similar to a motorcycle.
If its got a motor and it looks like a bike...
An an American, I agree with your assessment. to me, Vespas and Mopeds are motorbikes. they burn gas.
Pedal assist ebikes are a new category to me, and I don't think any of the current rules make much sense for that.
Pedal assists were the original e bikes back in the early 2000s. But the Chinese found that just making throttle only e bikes was more economical, so that’s what came to dominate the biking ways in China (for people there, biking is more about practicalities and economy than recreation).
I’m sure most American heads would explode if they ever saw how moped, scooter, small motorbike traffic mixed with cars in Southeast Asia.
I would not feel comfortable bicycling in Chinese "bike lanes", they are basically just separate lanes for the mopeds.
In China, the rich drive while the poor make do with e-bikes. Yes, you wouldn't feel comfortable in those lanes, but people still need to live.
Oh I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing at all - just that it is definitely not the case that you can comfortably comingle normal bikes with those lanes.
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