Strongly disagree. Ebikes enable weak, untrained riders (like kids who'd never leave their screens for bicycles otherwise) to reach and maintain speeds otherwise well out of their reach on flats and hills.
The lower-end RadRunner-type ebikes typically ridden by kids here in coastal SoCal are also usually 2-3 times heavier than unmotorized bikes, and their Surron-like e-motos can be even heavier.
So, double the mass
and speed and you have an ebike with EIGHT TIMES the kinetic energy to deposit into the pedestrian it hits. That alone completely changes the injury potential.
But powerful ebikes also enable weak, untrained, judgment-deficient riders to do wheelies and other dangerous stunts on busy streets and MUPs and donuts and rooster tails in parks and on trails. And that's exactly what many of the teen male ebikers here do.
All of which is precisely why this sign just appeared at a nearby park:
View attachment 208868
This in a place where seemingly everybody young and old has an ebike and can ride it year round. And where local governments have spent literally billions (in San Diego County alone) on infrastructure to promote bicycles as car replacements and healthy outdoor recreation.
We're losing the bushel for failure to identify and deal directly with the bad apples — complicit manufacturers, dealers, and parents included.d
