Dutch Police not messing about.

[Chargeride]

There are thousands of factors, an endless list of incident stats and human behaviour studies that go into legislation such as this.
The EU have decided on this speed limit based on a wide spread of consequences.
14yr olds up to any age will be buying and using these bikes, they are not toys for enthusiasts and seasoned fast, capable riders.
A continuous 25kph with barely any input across a range of people with various cognitive impairments or inexperience and lack of maturity...looks in mirror...drastically increases the chance of a direct collision or the cause of one.

They are sold out of the box with no training licence or insurance reqd.

If you personally want to go faster in Europe then take your chances or upgrade to the next level ebike, but I'd rather not have grandma's with slow reactions and dodgy eyesight tooting along at 30 mph in our crowded streets and busy sidewalks/ pavements.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

There are thousands of factors, an endless list of incident stats and human behaviour studies that go into legislation such as this.
The EU have decided on this speed limit based on a wide spread of consequences.
14yr olds up to any age will be buying and using these bikes, they are not toys for enthusiasts and seasoned fast, capable riders.
A continuous 25kph with barely any input across a range of people with various cognitive impairments or inexperience and lack of maturity...looks in mirror...drastically increases the chance of a direct collision or the cause of one.

They are sold out of the box with no training licence or insurance reqd.

If you personally want to go faster in Europe then take your chances or upgrade to the next level ebike, but I'd rather not have grandma's with slow reactions and dodgy eyesight tooting along at 30 mph in our crowded streets and busy sidewalks/ pavements.

I learned riding reasonably slowly. No hurry. Now, I consider removing the speed derestrictor from my Vado SL; it generates errors, and, more importantly, I prefer long rides to speed.

Once, I published my ride stats in a recreational cycling group. It was met with an awe 'wow, the average speed of 22 km/h on a metric century!' until people realised it was on an e-bike. Now, I even ride mostly on a single battery, simply rotating my spares for a better battery longevity...

Riding slower also helps me riding more safely.

 

[FiremarshallDave]

I'm all for that. I want to prepare factual arguments for not banning e bikes and that is the reason for the probing questions. I don't want these to be in the hands of immature riders or adults whose skills have diminished. I also want designers and retailers to talk about sustained flow rate speeds rather than a burst rate speed with extreme pedaling. I'm sure people will be less alarmed with a unit ridden at 15Mph on a mixed use path as opposed to the off road mode with a burst rate of x (you didn't give me the number) wait, sorry... that was Avalanche? I still would like to know that speed number and voltage, even at burst rate. I assume the bike being referred to is the 73. As we refer to speeds ...so many riders think they can ride at that speed then call the retailer and manufacturer and say the bike is broken or the battery is bad while lacking the concept of burst rate and sustained amperage flow.

 

[6zfshdb]

15 or 20 years ago, Bellingham imposed a pretty strict pedestrian privilege in street crossings, even where there are no crosswalks. This was actively enforced for a few months, then enforcement slacked off. Interestingly, the newly-learned habits seemed to stick, and drivers now almost always stop for peds, even if the peds haven't yet ventured into the street. But I still don't hurtle myself into oncoming traffic. In contrast, the little town of Aerlie Beach, in Queensland, Australia, had signs posted at the crosswalks saying that autos have the right of way; peds beware. The problem for us Yanks was remembering to look the right direction when checking for traffic. Don't know whether this was true everywhere.

"Pedestrian privilege" has proved fatal in my little town. Signs are clearly posted to indicate pedestrians have the right of way at marked crossings only. For some reason, the locals interpret this as a license to cross anywhere they like. So far this year, two have been killed by darting out between parked cars, leaving motorists zero chance of avoiding them. Before pedestrian privilege, there were one or two pedestrian fatalities per year.

To make it worse, the local town cop is quick to cite motorists for failing to yield to pedestrians, but not to write up jaywalkers.

I realize this may not be the norm everywhere, and I'm not saying the privilege is a bad thing, but due to the number of near misses I've had personally, I have little faith in the law.

 

[The Mudshark]

It's gratifying to know that fellow riders in the Netherlands take ebike violence seriously. Just like guns, it has nothing to do with the tools themselves, just the people who (mis)use them.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Additional information:
The police in Norway (especially in Oslo) often do routine check on e-bikes to determine whether the speed limiter has been tampered with or the e-bike is legal.

 

[dodgeman]

Walmart? Gunfights? Haven’t seen that yet. The great thing about Walmart is after I leave I feel good about myself. I’m 61 and don’t need an electric cart to get around, I feel good about my cloths, how I look and how much I weigh.

 

[mschwett]

Walmart? Gunfights? Haven’t seen that yet. The great thing about Walmart is after I leave I feel good about myself. I’m 61 and don’t need an electric cart to get around, I feel good about my cloths, how I look and how much I weigh.

you should never feel good about yourself for having shopped at walmart, no matter how fine a physical specimen you are compared to your co-shoppers

 

[Catalyzt]

Man, I almost got to ride a European eBike (with the lower limiter) when I was helping my sick friend in Portugal for the last two weeks! I really wanted to see what it was like, and I had plotted a route from Portimao to Ferragudo castle that had two monster hills... the car rental place had nice-looking bikes, too.

No dice. He was in the ICU one week, and starting PT the next... the errands and case management were endless. The one afternoon I could have done it, I got to the shop and... ah, right. Closed from 12:30 to 2:30, it was 12:34, and I had to be back at the hospital by 4:00!

I considered riding to the hospital, but even that plan didn't seem workable. ULS Algarve Hospital in Portimao not only has no parking-- for visitors and even staff have trouble parking-- but no place to lock a bike! I didn't see a single bike locked up ANYwhere outside.

Then I saw one of the nurses bringing a folding eBike into the ICU! That told me two things: There really, REALLY isn't any bike parking at that hospital, and probably if there is some place known even to locals, it's really not safe to lock your bike there.

The roads were also really narrow. It would have been a harrowing ride. Rarely saw bikes or even scooters on that road-- once or twice, yeah, but the riders didn't look like they were having fun. And the speed difference between the cars and bikes was pretty dramatic.