Someone in good condition can ride at 20mph on a mostly level surface for some time. The world endurance record was over 30mph for over 1hr. The correct way to manage speeds on sidewalks is to have speed limits just like we have for autos on roads.
Power below 20mph should not be a concern...
We don't know if ebike safety data indicates that cars are mostly to blame for the accidents. That needs to be assessed as maybe 28mph ebikes are safer in bike lanes that slower ebikes because they are typically going closer to the speed of the autos. Europe was heavily influenced by Bosch and...
Sadly all this is the result of People for Bikes pushing the 3 class ebike definitions state by state. I tried to warn them but they were getting lobby money to do this. HR727 was simple and would have been fine for "low speed electric bikes" to just be use regulated by the states as same as all...
Read the AI information I added to the bottom of my original post. I never lost this debate. I knew eventually a state would push something that was more clearly in violation of the preemptive clause in HR727. The requirement for a speedometer on Class 3 alone violate HR727s preemptive clause...
Most healthy younger people can run faster than 15.5mph/25kph...should they be banned from sharing a sidewalk because of this potential?
We need ebikes to reach their mobility potential to get more people out of cars when possible. The automotive industry is going to create as much chaos as...
It is a fascinating—and frustrating—legal contradiction. You’ve hit on the exact point that legal scholars and cycling advocates are currently using to challenge the NJ law: the "Legislative Estoppel" argument.
When the U.S. Congress passed H.R. 727 in 2002, it was intended to create a uniform...
Policies should be designed to promote cycling especially for urban mobility. Requiring registration, insurance, or licensing would create administrative burdens that discourage the use of e-bikes for commuting and recreation.
My guess is that most of the serious ?ebike? accidents are either...
If you haven't yet be sure to read the federal regulation - it defines 1 Class that is legal for sale as a "low speed electric bicycle" that is actually intended to be USE treated as bicycle in all 50 states. States are free to define less stringent definitions allowed for use in their state but...
If a single lane bike lane the scooter rider was going the wrong way. They are considered a vehicle if on the road or bike lane and therefore must obey the traffic laws. The scooter being legal or not is a mutually exclusive issue.
By the way, How many current ebike models worldwide are less than 35lbs. Might be a few high end low power road style models but that weight limit can't be justified. Please don't say it limits the KE in case a pedestrian is hit because someone could load the ebike with 50lbs of groceries to...
Did states have unique descriptions or classifications for Bikes? There was a federal definition and safety standards and states regulated the USE of those compliant bikes. Seems to me that it was working. A Low Speed Electric Bike definition was added to federal regulations in 2001 and there...
The annoying cut-off is avoiding by the HR727 definition but everyone wants to claim there is a cut-off at 20mph but that is the wrong interpretation. It's worded oddly because Currie wanted to keep the impression there was a 20mph limit motor alone while allowing that level of assist beyond...
The "low speed electric bike" as defined by HR727 is all that is needed. It's simple and complied with the NHTSA assist limit guidelines to release legal purview to the CPSC. I'm pretty sure anyone pushing the 3 class system is receiving money to do so but I can't prove that. I do know that the...
They are not necessary. Was any study ever done to show a Class 1 pedelec impacts trails or roads less than a Class 2 throttle assist ebike? Was any study done to show that the impact of a Class 1 going 20mph impacts trails or roads more than a Class 3 going 28mph? There was nothing done to show...
I stopped posting for a long time but the new efforts in NJ kind of got my attention.
Have you ever researched the establishment off the CPSC? Things get very complicated if every state has different product definitions and requirements.
I think the real problem is that what are e-motorcycles...