drphungky

I don’t think there’s some nefarious “they” cabal here, certainly not an organized one trying to discourage biking. Occam’s Razor is there are a few different types of people supporting this. Chief among them are just carbrained people who can’t fathom biking for transportation, who don’t realize how slow that is when they’ve only toodled on a 35 pound mountainbike recreationally at 10 mph. Then you’ve also got people who have almost been hit by a delivery scooter thinking “ebikes are a menace” solely because they’re new and something some “other” group of people uses, and so it’s easy to say “they must be stopped” while ignoring the crazy fast, way heavier cars they’re already desensitized to.

It’s not for bike lanes, the law is for “NYC Streets”. It’s a very dumb limit.

That attitude is crazy prevalent. I ride an ebike in DC, and after passing a guy on his acoustic bike, he caught up to me to bikeshame me for riding “a motorcycle”, and complained how he almost gets run over by ebikes every day (I was nowhere near him, I think he thought he was being funny). Ok, sure dude. I’m sure it’s ebikers almost run over you every day, not the thousands of distracted drivers.

The worst part is the dude ran two stop signs to catch up to me, while wearing no helmet. I’ve never seen such a clear posengeur who couldn’t deal with being passed. I am not your safety problem, bro.

It is a ROAD speed limit for ebikes. It’s like no one responding to you read the bill. It is not a mandated governor for ebikes, and has nothing to do with sidewalks or bike paths. The speed limit for cars is 25, for human powered vehicles is 25, but they want to limit ebikes because “they are heavier” and implied therefore more dangerous. It is a crazy bad law.

Did you read the bill? This is a road speed limit, not a mandated governor for the motor. It’s still super dumb, but it shouldn’t do anything to class 1, 2, or 3 sales.

This proposal is for the road, which is why it’s crazy. 25kmh limit on a bike path is fine. A speed limit on roads that is lower for bikes than cars is insane, when the justification for pedal bikes having a higher speed limit is that they’re lighter than ebikes. Cars should have a 5 mph limit in that case.

You absolutely do not need a registration and license for a class 3 ebike in America. Maybe in your local jurisdiction, but that is definitely not the case everywhere. Not in Maryland at least, and we are one of the more heavy-handed regulation states.

15 mph speed limit on roads? That is genuinely the dumbest thing I have read in forever. 15 on mixed use paths is still a kind of low limit, but why on earth should ebikes have a different speed limit on shared roads? Am I supposed to brake down every slight incline next time I visit NYC?

Classic legislating the out group from the in group. The idea that the justification in the text is that “ebikes are heavier than normal bikes [so less dangerous]” while at the same time having a higher speed limit for 2 ton pedestrian killers is insane.