I’d say stick a 30mph limit as a cutoff for needing to be licensed, with anything above that to just be considered a scooter (the 49cc kind that need licensed but aren’t allowed on freeways) and anything faster than that a motorcycle, and be done with it.
There already is. Class III e bikes end at 28mph. Beyond that they’re supposed to be plated.
I’d call this a problem that already has its solution in place, then. I’d bet the bigger issue is just people with faster bikes not following the law.
30mph is FAST, A 49cc moped is going to be able to hit a top speed of 30 miles per hour.
I’d say a speed limit for no licensing/registration/insurance should be 15mph. Thats about the speed an average cyclist would be able to go without electronic assists.
30 is not hard on a bike, dont need an ebike to do that
I can do 30+ on a road bike, and you can get a 49cc scooter to 40. The ones that cap at 30 are big or have limiters put on them. 30 is pretty fast, but not crazy fast. My little brother has a tricked out Onewheel that he races. It does 40mph. Now that’s crazy fast.
You’re sustaining 30 for over an hour on a road bike solely by pedaling? I didn’t know we had olympians in the comments
You are misreading that he said he could keep it up for an hour
True, I did exaggerate. But the reality is sustained motorized speed is entirely different from a cyclist’s burst speed, which is exactly why they shouldn’t be regulated the same way.
I’d argue the opposite.
Lol. No, but do you think it’s safer to pedal your ass off at thirty, or casually doing it on an e bike where you can look around and see everything else?
Just as an inspiration: in Germany the cut-off is 25 km/h (I’ll leave doing the math to you). I think that’s almost reasonable. Personally I’d favor 30 km/h, because that’s a common speed limit for residential areas over here and that would allow them to better flow with traffic.
That’s only 15 mph and it pretty damned terrible, really. That’s slower than my cruising speed on my road bike and only half as fast as my burst speed when trying to go really quick. 40kmh would be about 25mph and that seems like an acceptable speed to have without being too unsafe to me.
Ah, an important fact I forgot to mention this rule applies to bikes with pedalling assistance, so pedelecs, strictly speaking. Real E-bikes, that can use their motor by flicking a switch always require a license plate. That’s the silly part of the law her, imho. I just added this fact after having written the rest.
If you’re doing more than 15 mph as a long-term cruising speed and 30 mph burst, I have to assume, you’re a fairly fit and healthy person. And of course it wouldn’t feel unsafe for you to do the same speeds with an E-bike. But what you have to consider is, that these bikes are also very popular with people who are not fit enough to reach those speeds unassisted and maybe haven’t even ridden a bike for a long time. When I see some of our elderly citizens using them, I’m pretty happy they aren’t allowed to go that much faster, since they are also not restricted to use roads and often share the way with pedestrians.
What you also have to put into consideration is, that this limit doesn’t mean, that you cannot go faster, it’s just that the assistance shuts of at ~15 mph and everything on top, you have to pedal in yourself. Which is a bit more exhausting, due to the overall heavier bike, but something I regularly do, even though I ride a pretty shoddy 10 year-old bike with less than ideal mechanics.
The overall experience of riding a bike like that is pretty damn great still and not at all as terrible, as you make it sound. You can go your regular cruising speed on flat parts, no restriction for downhill, but you get an extra lift for uphill sections, and what’s the biggest plus for me is the extra acceleration - and ease thereof - when you have to stop at cross-sections and traffic-lights.
It’s all depended on the surrounding traffic and environment a bit, so I’m not saying a carbon copy of that rule would be ideal for the US for example. But even though I’d wish for 3 mph more, it works pretty well around here. And don’t forget that you can simply get a bike with a license plate for anythig beyond those rules.
You make some good points. What is of special annoyance in the US is that bikes are NOT allowed where pedestrians walk. Bikes are required to be in bike lanes (don’t exist in most areas) or on the road with vehicles. The city I work in for instance, has quite a few sidewalks for people, but bikes aren’t allowed on them. They just have to be in streets with other cars.
Yeah, though I’ve never visited, I’m aware that US traffic is in large parts a hellscape for anything that isn’t a car or motorcycle.
So very different circumstances. Arguably, the solution would be a shifting paradigm in urban planning, rather than fast E-bikes. But the latter is obviously much easier to achieve.
Now limit car speed next? They seem to be the biggest menace on the roads in California. E-motos are not e-bikes and e-bikes shouldn’t be lumped into legislation.
Yes.
But even if they didn’t limit cars. That’s no excuse for not limiting e-bikes.
You don’t need to prove that you know the traffic laws to ride an ebike. You do to ride a car.
You do not need a license that can be revoked to ride an ebike. So if you speed in a car you could just get your license removed, not the case for ebikes.
The thing is, cops can still cite bikers for breaking traffic laws they don’t know. So why aren’t the cops enforcing existing traffic laws on e-bikes? In my town I see kids without helmets drive past cop cars and the cops don’t even take a second look.
I really wish California revoked licenses for stuff like that. On paper they do but really speeding is rampant and not enforced. We should be stepping up patrols to enforce laws we have on the books before making more.
Aren’t car speeds already limited everywhere?
e-bikes and e-scooters where I come from are limited to 25 km/h because you don’t really need a license for those. Vehicles that require a license (and thus plenty of training) are allowed to go faster. If your e-bike is limited to 25, you’re still allowed to cycle faster than that on your own. In fact, cycling speed isn’t limited at all, other than near pedestrians or in designated walkable areas. E-motos have the same speed limits as cars and motorcycles, because they require a motorcycle license and are generally classified as motorcycles.
The idea is that kids with no formal traffic training and potentially not much experience shouldn’t be able to shoot up to 50 km/h in 2 seconds using an electric motor. Achieving speed with your own muscles takes more time and effort, requires a straight enough road, etc.
They are not limiting car speed on the car itself. Which is what they are proposing, a governor on the e-bike that prevents you from going faster.
Yes, on vehicles that require no training or license and have no license plate and usually go pretty fast on pedestrian walkways. The faster ones will get license plates (but no training or license requirement).
I’ve put 4000 miles on my e-bike in the past 2 years. Even though I follow traffic laws, I’ve seen far too much fuckery by other e-bike riders. I’m seeing children riding e-bikes and scooters, without helmets, doing crazy shit in the middle of the road almost cause accidents. I have narrowly avoided hitting such children on 3 separate occasions. I see plenty of adults on these things also not following traffic laws and riding these things on busy sidewalks.
I really do not want e-bikes to be regulated like cars. Being forced to register and carry insurance makes an inexpensive thing expensive. That being said, there are tons of dumb assholes out there that will ruin it for the rest of us.
Registering is fine, a lot of people voluntarily register their expensive bikes with local police that have those programs anyway.
Insurance is weirder. Cars require as much insurance as they do because they weigh multiple tons and can kill people and destroy infrastructure. A powered bike can do a lot of damage, especially if it rams someone, but it has an order of magnitude less destructive potential than a car. Especially for a limited powered bike insurance “should” be significantly cheaper.
The difference is honestly closer to two orders of magnitude.
E = 1/2mv^2
1/2 * 1000kg * 50 km/h * 50 km/h * 0.2778 mh/skm * 0.2778 mh/skm = 96 kJ
1/2 * 100kg * 25 km/h * 25 km/h * 0.2778 mh/skm * 0.2778 mh/skm = 2 kJ
What a stupid idea.
EMS treats a pedestrian vs pedal bicycle accident the same as a pedestrian vs car accident.
Ebikes can go a lot faster.
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Can, but more important thing is the weight. While lightweight bicycles can easily exceed 25km/h (and I personally can reach 40km/h with mine), they’re usually much lighter, obviously. This comes with a noticeable difference in the impact itself. You could argue they’re more stable or have better brakes, but people are just more irresponsible with them. I can bet my left ball on the fact that statistically ebikes crash more often than non-ebikes (per capita) and the crashes are almost always more severe
they’re usually much lighter, obviously
Sure. But if the combined weight of rider and bike is around 100kg and that rises to 115kg for an electric, then that’s not a huge difference.
100kg biker
Cars can go even faster and actually do kill thousands of people, but god fucking forbid we talk about slowing those down because we’re so normalized to their violence that we’re blind to it. I agree with the person you replied to, this is monumentally stupid. Give micromobility their own infrastructure, repurpose space currently given to cars. We’ve gotra stop pearl-clutching over sustainable progress.
It’s not an either/or proposition.
A stupid person on an ebike can cause an accident.
And they slow down cars all the time. There are speed bumps galore near me.
Most so-called ebike deaths are actually car deaths, because the cyclist gets hit by a car
14 year old on an suron killed an 81 year old pedestrian here. The mom is being charged with involuntary manslaughter.
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Cars require a license that can be taken away if the driver is a danger to society. They also drive on their own roads.
An e-bike can hit pretty high speeds and is usually ridden on pedestrian walkways. There’s no license to take away, and if you don’t get caught immediately, you can just go bye bye since there’s no license plate.
That’s why they’re introducing regulations limiting unlicensed e-bikes to reasonable speeds, while more powerful e-bikes are still available if you’re 18 and get a license plate. You can still ride it without any training since those don’t assist you past 45 km/h either… Though personally I’m of the opinion that an ebike capable of hitting 45 km/h in 2 seconds on a pedestrian walkway should require training and a license too. Or just be banned from sidewalks.
Places that allow any sort of bike on the sidewalk are generally places that have neglected to bother with any sort of adequate biking infrastructure.
But cars already require licenses and have speed limits? Now we’re talking about limiting unlicensed e-bikes, whereas with a motorcycle license you could still go as fast as cars or… motorcycles.
How about we just license the ebikes according to what they’re capable of like we do with cars and motorcycles?
Uhh that’s what everyone’s whining about here though. Not even a license requirement, a simple minimum age and license plate for high speed ebikes.
I think everyone in here is whining about slightly different things because of how many aspects there are to this discourse.
The new law lays the groundwork for Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) technology, which uses GPS and onboard sensors to prevent vehicles from exceeding posted speed limits, to be used by super speeders. This is not a blanket mandate; it focuses on the most dangerous drivers while allowing safe mobility for the general public.
If this like a breathalyzer that only gets installed in some people’s cars, or is it going to have to be in all cars?
I think it makes sense for those bikes that can do 30mph+ and aren’t even meant to be ridden as bicycles despite having pedals. They usually look like a motorcycle and can accommodate two riders. Having bicycle pedals shouldn’t be a loophole for bypassing drivers licensing requirements and traffic laws. These things are usually ridden by 10-15 year olds who don’t yet have formal training. I saw a kid cause an accident buzzing through a 4-way stop. I’ve also heard of them colliding with pedestrians at high speeds on sidewalks.
I agree with all of your points. However, in California, ebikes are already regulated:
https://riding5.com/blogs/news/california-ebike-laws-class-1-2-3
The only “wild west” thing happening is that some people are riding illegal, (they’re already illegal. We don’t need new laws) unregistered electric motorcycles. The 30+ mph “ebikes” you refer to: those are motorcycles.
What makes it the Wild West is there is no good way to enforce anything at the moment, so any existing regulations are ineffective to the point where the current environment is de facto unregulated
Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, the East Bay legislator behind the license plate bill, says law enforcement in her district has been raising concerns for some time. Officers told her they are seeing dangerous speeds from electric bikes but have no practical way to issue citations without putting themselves or others at risk. A license plate changes that equation.
She also pointed out that the rise of e-bikes among younger riders has made it harder to know at a glance whether a child is legally riding an age-appropriate e-bike, operating an illegally modified one, or cruising around on an electric moped that is not supposed to be on public roads at all.
How do you know which one is illegal? It’s the one that’s going too fast.
Ebikes are an excellent, relatively inexpensive solution to several problems. They’re going to try to regulate them until they become impractical.
I’ve got a skateboard and unicycle myself, I think all these things are great, but you’ve highlighted the big problems that exist today. It’s the kids that have no sense, whip by people walking, being ignorant to traffic rules, etc.
I watched 2 kids on a gravel path whip by on escooters past a 5 year old swaying back and forth on a pedal bike as he was obviously trying to learn. That could have gotten bad.
And have them pay insurance.
The number of children I see zooming around the neighborhood without helmets and not even stopping at stop signs (I legit almost hit one kid one time who blew through a stop sign in front of me), is pretty horrifying. Their parents have basically given them all small motorcycles and let them go free with no supervision. It just seems so unsafe.
The issue here is that we have no way to verify from your text whether you almost hit them because of their lack of responsibility, or if you weren’t paying enough attention.
As someone with extensive experience with bike commuting on a regular bike, I have had multiple near death experiences while obeying all traffic laws properly and using multiple light sources. Even with my new 10 minute walking commute, the simple act of crossing the street safely when the street lights tell me to cross, has proved to be asking too much with multiple near hits in only a few months.
Humans are not remotely responsible enough to drive.
Lol I was paying perfect attention. Only reason the kid was ok was that I was far enough back to slam on my breaks (and was going the speed limit). I doubt he even realized how risky the move he pulled was.
In all fairness, I’ve also nearly been hit by asshole pickup trucks blowing the same stop sign. Guess it might just be that intersection that makes people think it’s optional.
Hell, I’ve had kids riding down the opposite lane of traffic riding wheelies and swerving around. Absolutely no accountability.
Not just children, but adults too! They’re more likely to have a helmet on, but stop a stop sign? Nah, they don’t have to stop, they are immune to traffic laws!
Stop signs and traffic lights only exist to stop cars from killing people, bicycles do not need stop signs.
It is safer for bicyclists to run stop signs than it is to come to a complete stop. Also who the fuck in 2026 actually stops at a stop sign? Nobody does.
Kids having independence is a good thing. They are probably the first in their family to be independent from cars and so their parents don’t teach them cycling etiquette.
Yes independence is a good thing. If they were riding normal bikes, I’d have few issues with them. However, the way things currently are, I see a decent number of dead or disabled children in the future.
Some vehicles that people call “ebikes” should absolutely be registered and plated. You should not be able to take a motorized vehicle on a bike path and zoom through at 50+ MPH. The surron kiddies are going to ruin alternative transportation for everyone. Sure, surrons aren’t ebikes (and something like a super 76 which has pedals really should be regulated as part of its own category like emoped or something), but regulators are going to want to put everything in nice near categories and ban everything else.
Helmets are bad for safety because (1) car drivers act more dangerous around cyclists wearing helmets and (2) they discourage people from riding bikes whereas the primary safety factor of cycling, by far, is the number of people cycling.
huh? I never wear a helmet outside of escooters but I’m not going to argue that no helmet is safer than helmet
Genuinely nobody follows stop signs. I think it’s like 20% actually come to a stop?
With bicycles, it’s safer to treat stop signs as a yield signs since coming to a full stop means you’ll cross the intersection much more slowly than if you keep some speed.
Good, they’re great technology. Regulation and legislation will allow them to be used safely resulting in fewer cars on the road.
You’re not really a “cyclist” if a motor is doing a bunch of the work. That’s the equivalent of those mopeds we had in the ‘70s that you could pedal, too. Probably went 35-40 mph. Nobody in their right mind would call them bicycles or call the riders cyclists. It’s a motorized bike.
Depends, if it’s pedal assist it’s most definitely cyclists. If it’s just a throttle then I agree
have you tried “cycling” on stronger electric bikes with the support mode set to “sport” or “highest”? Moving the pedals is pretty damn symbolic on these vehicles, less than 10% of the actual energy needed to move is provided by the legs, it’s almost all motor. It’s like they moved the throttle control to the pedals.
It’s a motorized bike.
But not to be confused with a motorcycle, which is something different.
Semantics.
Just common usage has made a “motorized bicycle” of yesteryear into its own vehicle class today. It’s exactly the same thing with e-bikes hitting 30+ mph speeds, just electric motors instead of an ICE.
Why are they capping wattage as well as speed? Is it important to the Canadian government that people must be unable to climb hills?
They need to protect Alberta tar Sands profit
I would assume without reading it that it’s because if you have enough wattage, you should be able to make more speed if you know how to get past whatever limiter there is.
This legislative whack-a-mole doesn’t work and tends to originate from those with no understanding of the tech involved. See 3D printer laws that ban certain shapes as “gun parts.” Very silly indeed.
That is what the bike pedals are for. /s
Back in my day we pedaled up hills on our bicycles
Back in my day we hilled up our bicycles
Both ways
Pretty sensible. Brings things nearly in line with EU regs. Personally though I think 20mph is just about right as a limit without really upsetting people. It’s 15.6mph here and I just don’t see the point using one if I can ride faster on most terrain under my own steam.
It’s 15.6mph here and I just don’t see the point using one if I can ride faster on most terrain under my own steam.
Hills.
Shared bike paths. If I have to nearly stop to go around a kid on a tricycle it’s no big deal since I can get back up to speed with no effort. But without the electric boost I’m more tempted to fly by to keep my speed up.
I can ride 15.6mph up hills if I really want :)
20 mph is difficult to hold your own with cars in the street.
Let’s use traffic calming to limit cars to 20mph too.
Yeah I have a 20mph one and it feels pretty reasonable tbh
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 riders of certain electric bikes to register their vehicles with the DMV and slap a license plate on the frame. The other would reduce the top speed that e-bikes for children are allowed to reach. If you are a daily commuter, a weekend rider, or a parent who just bought their kid a new electric bike, this news is worth paying attention to.
The bills are being pitched as a safety measure, and the lawmakers behind them say the surge in e-bike usage, especially among teens and tweens in suburban areas, has created real enforcement headaches for local police. Without license plates, officers say it is nearly impossible to ticket a rider safely without chasing them down, which creates its own set of dangers.
Officers told her they are seeing dangerous speeds from electric bikes but have no practical way to issue citations without putting themselves or others at risk.
My issue isn’t them exceeding the speed limit, but outright disregarding traffic laws, like going the wrong way on the street, disregarding red lights and stop signs, and not having lights while operating at night. I don’t do any of that when I’m on a bike, and the people who are breaking those laws also shouldn’t be. Those are all issues that come up as readily with conventional bicycles as with e-bikes. If e-bikes on public roads are going to be required to sport a license plate, I’d think that conventional bicycles could also be required to have a license plate.
They also need to stay off the fucking sidewalk!!! Back in NYC, it would be a daily occurrence that I would nearly get hit by an ebike or moped while walking my dog. It’s infuriating. There’s no fucking excuse guys
The problem is not raining in the street is too dangerous cars will run you over and even a class 3 electric bike cannot keep up with cars on non-residential streets without a lot of manual exertion. I think it should be legal to ride on the sidewalk anywhere that does not have protected bike Lanes, not just a thin painted stripe
I’m OK with it being illegal to cycle on the pavement, even though I do it in places where it’s not allowed. There, just as in places in my city where it is allowed, I slow down so that I’m more at the same speed as pedestrians, so that I don’t cause a problem. But not everyone does, and it’s easier to crack down on the shitheads if it’s just plain not legal. If there were a crackdown, I’d easily be able to walk my bike in the places where I currently break the rules.
They should ban cars from the streets so pedestrians and ebikes dont have to share the little sidewalk.
Then build me a mf bike lane. In many places (where I live!) its either the sidewalk or share the road with 55mph traffic. I’m taking the sidewalk…
Why should golf carts be able to ride on the side walk but not cyclists?
…who the fuck thinks golf carts should be allowed to ride on sidewalks?
NYC probably bans it.
searches
Yeah.
https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/newyorkcity/latest/NYCadmin/0-0-0-31165
§ 19-176 Bicycle operation on sidewalks prohibited.
California has patchwork restrictions on it — it may not be illegal where you see someone doing it.
searches
https://bikeeastbay.org/SidewalkCycling/
Here is a list of all the cities in the East Bay, South Bay, and Peninsula, and the sidewalk cycling laws for each community. Keep in mind that although children are allowed to ride on the sidewalk in some cities this does not mean that they are required to do so. Also note that if a jurisdiction does not specifically regulate sidewalk cycling via their local code then it is permitted everywhere (the “No Data” column below):
Who’s gonna enforce it though? It’s essentially unenforceable until someone causes an accident and the cops are called
A license plate requirement means that people just writing an electric bicycle will be mass surveilled by flock cameras and have their location data added to their palantir dossier which is a seriousness civil liberties risk, the fact that they’re trying to extend the bicycles is about control not safety we should resist it
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.
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.
What network of bike lanes and bike roads?? Sure, there are SOME bike lanes, but where we are, most roads don’t have them and sometimes you gotta get in with the cars or on the sidewalk.
Oh and it’s technically illegal to ride on the sidewalk. We do it anyway because going with the cars is pretty unsafe when you can only go 15mph at best.
– Frost
There actually is a network of bike lanes and bike roads. It is still faster for the bikers to just race through the pedestrian zone. And woe to those who don’t jump out of the food couriers way.
And while you complain about the dangers of the road for cyclists, you endanger pedestrians in the same way.
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.
It’s basically old people trying to take away kid’s mobility.
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:
- 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.
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.
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.
E-bikes are already capped at 25km/h here. Aren’t they elsewhere?
In the US e-bikes that can reach 60 mph — which is 96.5 km/h — without peddling are starting to become common, especially with children. They are motorcycles.
Those aren’t e-bikes by any legal definition, they just look like e-bikes because they have some technically functional pedals.
E-bikes are categorized into three primary groups based on factors such as motor power, availability of pedal and/or throttle assist and maximum speeds. Familiarizing yourself with the e-bike class allows you to anticipate its performance characteristics. Depending on the class, certain areas may permit riding a Class 1 e-bike while prohibiting the use of a Class 3 e-bike for instance. These regulations vary across states with many states having their own e-bike classifications or lack thereof. California, for example, has legislation specifying three e-bike classes. There are generally accepted definitions for e-bike classes, and we provide an overview of these standard classifications below.
Class 1
A Class 1 e-bike, also known as a pedelec, relies on pedaling to propel forward. It features pedal assist but lacks throttle assist, limiting its speed to a maximum of 20 miles per hour. In most cases, Class 1 e-bikes are permitted in the same areas as traditional bicycles such as bike paths and bike lanes. However, the specific regulations governing their usage depend on local government ordinances.
Class 2
Class 2 e-bikes offer both pedal assist and throttle assist, allowing them to move forward even without pedaling. Generally, Class 2 e-bikes are not designed to exceed 20 mph. Many jurisdictions allow the use of Class 2 e-bikes on conventional bike paths and lanes.
Class 3
Class 3 e-bikes are slightly faster, reaching speeds of up to 28 mph. They often come equipped with a speedometer, which may be required in certain states like California. Class 3 e-bikes are typically permitted on roads and designated bike-only shoulder lanes. However, due to their higher power output, they are generally not allowed on standard bike lanes, paths or trails.
https://ww3.arb.ca.gov/carbapps/ebikeincentives/e-bike-basics/index.html
That’s nothing a cheap EEPROM reader from China cannot solve…
Just license them in accordance with their capabilities. All the bad press about ebikes lately is running cover for government negligence over lack of normalizing them into existing licensing frameworks, on behalf of the automotive lobby that knows if these vehicles aren’t given an appropriate legal niche they will instead end up being seen by society as dangerous scofflaws and ultimately banned or legistalted out of practicality.
Use your brains. Ask why the discussion doesn’t revolve around appropriate licensure and infrastructure, and instead revolves around how to get rid of them.
IL has a L license for motorcycles under 150cc, no reason not to have a kwH rating for it.
A 110cc motorbike can do 60 mph, theres a fundamental difference between that and a souped up ebike doing 30.
Souped up e-bikes are approaching 60+ now too.
This kid who killed a pedestrian was caught going 56mph in the weeks preceding the accident.
Yes but the souped up e-bikes doing 30 need regulation as well. Maybe not by placing them into an existing category where they don’t fit but some of these rigs out here are freaking ridiculous and ruining it for everyone.
Do states not? PA is 750W, but bikes might be governed to 20 or 28mph.
State laws around low power two wheel vehicles are all over the place, and mostly leftover from the two stroke moped era of the 70s and early 80s. So none of it really makes sense anymore.
The laws are varied, but from what I can tell only three states don’t have definitions for e-bikes: AL, AK, GA. Most adhere to federal guidelines of 750W and Class 1+2 while others also permit Class 3. Several allow up to 1000W. The tl;dr is a <=750W Class 1 is allowed pretty much anywhere whereas a Class 3 may have additional requirements or be unpermitted.
That’s what I thought as well yet I see what are essentially electrically powered off-road motorcycles everywhere. There’s no enforcing the sales end of it, which I guess means it’s up to local law enforcement?
