Comment by smashah
4 years ago
Differentiating between pedal assist & throttled e-bike serves no great purpose.
There should be no distinction, legally, between a normal bicycle and an electric bike of any kind (throttle or otherwise).
Personal Electric (micro) Mobility is the answer to many problems, let's not add any roadblocks to adoption. Other than keeping powers-that-be comfortable and sparing the feelings of cycling puritans, the distinction is useless, bordering on harmful to the environment.
The recent explosion of high speed scooters has been a menace since my city recently allowed them and e-bikes on bike paths and the local bike rental places purchased whole fleets.
The problem is that tourists and knaves are constantly riding them on paths that are marked pedestrian-only (sometimes due to unfamiliarity with the path system, though often intentionally). Even when they stick to the adjacent bike lanes the scooters accelerate and go so much faster than bikes they are constantly putting pedestrians and slower cyclists in danger. If they stuck to bike lanes on streets it wouldn’t be so bad, but I worry there will soon be a raft of Bernie Goetz style vigilante clotheslining of irresponsible riders.