concerns with ebikes laws and ways to improve them

[Ken M]

There needs to be incentives for not using any motors at all.

Bikes are still ridden for leisure/recreation/fitness but transportation solutions do have time and efficiency components. Sure average ebike speeds are higher than traditional bikes but that is very very important when used for mobility. Also ebikes are the most efficient way for humans to go from A-to-B when total energy and calories are considered - as efficient as a full loaded passenger train. No one is trying to belittle you but you are saying some things that seem like intentional disinformation - you never want to appear to be a troll with a hidden negative agenda (ie propaganda in harmful).

 

[mschwett]

You clearly just don't like ebikes. A good rider on a traditional road bike can sustain a speed over 30mph on a level surface for at least a few minutes (….

absolute nonsense, and e-bike advocates need to stop using falsehoods to make their case.

it takes over 600 watts to go 30mph on level ground on a decent road bicycle. check the CAT charts for RACERS and you’ll see that this is sustainable for about a minute for a 75% category racer. for an amateur, enthusiastic and fit rider, more like 30 seconds. the average speed for enthusiastic recreational cyclists is 12-14 mph with extremely few sustained periods over 20mph.

unless you want to license, register, and insure cyclists and cycles, and build out an appropriate independent network of streets and paths suitable for whatever random vehicle you have in mind, e-bikes need to stay close to the performance envelope of a high level recreational cyclist. that means 15-20mph, not 25+, and it means 250w sustained, not 750.

you keep saying the same (often untrue or irrelevant) things over and over again, so please don’t bother replying.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

View attachment 210514

You left out my row at the bottom.
;^}

What does the 1st (%) column refer to, and where can I find an explanation of this chart?

At 77, I can easily go WAY faster than anyone should on an MUP on a 40 lb, 250W, 35 Nm ebike with no throttle. For legal ebikes granted full access to public trails and bikeways, 750W of motor power, however measured, is more than enough.

 

[mschwett]

You left out my row at the bottom.
;^}

What does the 1st (%) column refer to, and where can I find an explanation of this chart?

At 77, I can easily go WAY faster than anyone should on an MUP on a 40 lb, 250W, 35 Nm ebike with no throttle. For legal ebikes granted full access to public trails and bikeways, 750W of motor power, however measured, is more than enough.

the first column is the percentile rank of athletes on cyclinganalytics - so if you read across from 90% basically 10% of athletes on that site can sustain 627 watts for a minute. so really we’re probably talking about 1 to 5% of the population, because anyone using a power meter and uploading to cyclinganalytics is by definition a pretty committed cyclist.

How does your cycling power output compare?

www.cyclinganalytics.com