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
Estonia. Bicycles are allowed on either the light traffic road, or the car lanes. You’re not supposed to go very fast around pedestrians if you opt for the former, but a lot of people (teenagers mostly) do anyway. That’s why I’m saying an e-bike that can do 45 km/h should be considered a moped, and be restricted to being used on the road where cars go. In fact that’s how it is here. An e-bike that’s considered a light traffic vehicle is only allowed to assist until 25 km/h. This is also what California seems to be doing, with higher speeds requiring a license plate and the class 1 vehicles getting restricted.
Here in the states we don’t have a “light traffic road” as you describe. That’s just not a thing in our infrastructure. This situation would be easier to resolve if we did.
Fair enough. Yeah if all e-bikes are going to be sharing the road with cars anyway, I can see why it wouldn’t make sense to limit unlicensed ones to 25 in your case. But at the same time, it makes sense that if a vehicle is capable of speeding, it should have a license plate on it and require the user to be 18. No?
Yes and a driver’s test, like any other licensed vehicle. What I would oppose are speed capping the vehicles themselves or outright banning them, as I think both of those “solutions” are more in service to the automotive industry than anything else. And throws the baby out with the bath water, so to speak.
Well, nobody’s outright banning them luckily, and only the ones that don’t require a test are being capped AFAIK. If your ebike is registered as a motorcycle, it requires a driver’s test and doesn’t need to have the speed capped at all.
Where do you live? I’m in the US where almost all vehicles, including cyclists, ride in the street and only car drivers refer to them as “car lanes”.
Estonia. Bicycles are allowed on either the light traffic road, or the car lanes. You’re not supposed to go very fast around pedestrians if you opt for the former, but a lot of people (teenagers mostly) do anyway. That’s why I’m saying an e-bike that can do 45 km/h should be considered a moped, and be restricted to being used on the road where cars go. In fact that’s how it is here. An e-bike that’s considered a light traffic vehicle is only allowed to assist until 25 km/h. This is also what California seems to be doing, with higher speeds requiring a license plate and the class 1 vehicles getting restricted.
Here in the states we don’t have a “light traffic road” as you describe. That’s just not a thing in our infrastructure. This situation would be easier to resolve if we did.
Fair enough. Yeah if all e-bikes are going to be sharing the road with cars anyway, I can see why it wouldn’t make sense to limit unlicensed ones to 25 in your case. But at the same time, it makes sense that if a vehicle is capable of speeding, it should have a license plate on it and require the user to be 18. No?
Yes and a driver’s test, like any other licensed vehicle. What I would oppose are speed capping the vehicles themselves or outright banning them, as I think both of those “solutions” are more in service to the automotive industry than anything else. And throws the baby out with the bath water, so to speak.
Well, nobody’s outright banning them luckily, and only the ones that don’t require a test are being capped AFAIK. If your ebike is registered as a motorcycle, it requires a driver’s test and doesn’t need to have the speed capped at all.
Yes, if it can go over the speed limit I agree. However I cannot.