E-BIKE SPEED RESTRICTIONS (AGREE OR DISAGREE )

[Alicia Margaret]

Me personally I think there needs to be some restrictions. If there are no restrictions at all, people will start behaving like crazy. Which will be detrimental to everyone. 28 miles per hour is not a bad speed but it is a very high speed for many people, especially among senior citizens who are not completely healthy but they need to exercise. You will notice that some stupid people ride e-bikes at high speeds in family parks which can lead to accidents, Even sometimes it happens. Think about these, what those people can do if there are no restrictions. Me personally I think there needs to be some restrictions.

 

[Bitmugger]

I feel there needs to be a restriction. Way too easy to manufacture a ebike that can do 80km/hr and have it get in the hands of someone who has no road driving experience. I fully support high speed bikes but they need to be regulated and require license/insurance past a certain point.

Should that restriction be 32km/hr.....I wish it were more like 40km/hr but I bet if it were 40km/hr I'd want 45km/hr. I pedal and with the assist can maintain 30km/hr and find I get most places in good time and for casual rides I don't care about speed and for long distance touring type rides with panniers I aim for 24-26km/hr anyway to maintain battery so the limit isn't really hampering me on those rides.

 

[AHicks]

Not real worried about it. Sure there are bikes that will go 28mph pretty easily. Most though, are discouraged from riding that fast often. They find they can go fast, but they can't go fast very long or far.

Speed limits are useless without teeth (enforcement) to back them up. Kinda like a stop sign out in the boonies with 10 mile visibility in all directions. If there's no enforcement visible, are you going to come to a full stop, or treat that sign more like a yield, or maybe ignore it completely?

 

[indianajo]

Laws are cheap, enforcement is expensive. Street in front of my house is posted 35 mph. People have started street racing motorcycles at 80+ mph. The jails are full of murderers, drug pushers, no room for street racers. I ride a bicycle at 8 mph on that street. The city did actually jail a drugged driver that killed a bicyclist in August in front of a restaurant video camera. No, he didn't stop. No news if he is out on bail, but bail level was set at $100000. Louisville is now trying a sewer truck driver that ran over a police car at an assist stop at 47 mph. Killed the police detective. Also caught on traffic camera.
Nuisance laws like bike speed restrictions mostly affect black, short, &Edit Asian, Nat. Am. ("mexicans"), ugly people. I'm short & ugly. I have been arrested (and released) dozens of times for walking. With bike restrictions, police will confiscate my bike the way NYC was doing.
Police in Baton Rouge, LA, confiscated my suitcase off the Greyhound bus with their drug sniffing dog. I had Texas sweet onions in it, an obvious kind of contraband. I got the suitcase back 3 weeks later, but minus my new black suit. I had to buy a dark sport coat at Goodwill to go to my father's funeral a week after the important drug bust.
Police in a small town east of Dallas stop all Greyhound busses, order the passengers off, and sniff for cash. Cash confiscated by police can be spent on their drug enforcement program. Obviously any cash came from drugs. Mine came from hard work and thrift. If it wasn't for ******* laws like that, I'd take $1000 on the Greyhound down to Mexico and buy some teeth. Maybe even see some sights. **** plastic cards, all administered by the bank for Manual Noriega, Citi.

 

[Mike TowpathTraveler]

"28 miles per hour is not a bad speed but it is a very high speed for many people, especially among senior citizens who are not completely healthy but they need to exercise. You will notice that some stupid people ride e-bikes at high speeds in family parks which can lead to accidents."

For an unhealthy senior to get up to 28mph, they certainly have to work at it to get there, which results in an improved cardio condition, no? Stupid would be the wrong word as to your latter, Alicia Devid Margeret Sam. In my travels, I've seen more analog bikers behaving like Lance Armstrong around walkers and other bicyclists on my local towpaths than on electric bikes. But it's only a matter of time, before that same, self centered and selfish attitude gets translated into ebiking.

And than, it becomes a problem, maybe a political one at that, for all ebikers.

 

[Taylor57]

Me personally I think there needs to be some restrictions. If there are no restrictions at all, people will start behaving like crazy. Which will be detrimental to everyone. 28 miles per hour is not a bad speed but it is a very high speed for many people, especially among senior citizens who are not completely healthy but they need to exercise. You will notice that some stupid people ride e-bikes at high speeds in family parks which can lead to accidents, Even sometimes it happens. Think about these, what those people can do if there are no restrictions. Me personally I think there needs to be some restrictions.

View attachment 105332

My bike will do 35 throttle only but I find myself mostly in PAS 2 or 3 doing 16-18mph. It is nice to know I have that in reserve though. Frey CC

 

[RabH]

We in the UK are restricted to 15.5mph and I personally hope that restriction remains, it means we can enjoy our e bikes without needing to wear full face helmets and no special license is required! The freedom that brings is what makes cycling so attractive to many, I just hope the selfish few here that unrestrict their bikes don't spoil it for us law abiding riders!

 

[ruffruff]

I'm a senior and I can take care of myself, including how fast I think I should be going, thank you.
It's a common sense thing, NOT an age thing.

 

[fauconnier]

I consider it's a privilege to ride a bike with electric assistance, no insurance, no permit, light helmet on cycle paths or on roads paid by all the taxpayers. Restrictions ? that goes without saying.

 

[Mr. Coffee]

There is quite bit of context here that is missing. If you are riding on a lightly traveled route with good sight lines, good visibility at crossings and intersections, and good surface conditions higher speeds are fine. Take away one or more of those things and 10mph might be insanely reckless. It all comes down to judgement, and unfortunately a lot of people out there have poor judgement.

There are lots of ways to "enforce" a speed limit beyond having a cop with a radar gun. You can design trails and roads to be "self-enforcing": you can make the path narrower, use a different surface (e.g. bricks rather than asphalt), or have barriers such as bollards that will force a cyclist to slow down to navigate them safely. You can also "enforce" after the fact when an accident occurs by assigning fault, and we all know that there are big differences between the consequences of an accident at 10mph (some scratches and bruises and possibly wounded dignity) and at 28mph (typically a pretty trashed bike and broken bones) so a reasonable evaluation of the damage caused should be enough to determine if a cyclist was traveling at an unsafe speed.

 

[tomjasz]

$300 Walmart fat bikes with BBSHD motors... An accident waiting to happen.

 

[mschwett]

I consider it's a privilege to ride a bike with electric assistance, no insurance, no permit, light helmet on cycle paths or on roads paid by all the taxpayers. Restrictions ? that goes without saying.

This, exactly this. The beauty of eBikes in the United States is that you don’t need to register and insure the bike or License the rider. Great for families, different circumstances, multiple bikes, very low barrier to entry.

Allowing them to go so fast, or a combination of fast and heavy, that makes serious injury likely in a crash or near-crash will require some combination of license/registration/insurance as are required for motor vehicle that used our shared public ways.

I think there are pros and cons to introducing limitations on the vehicle design vs. regulations on the use of the paths, bike lanes, and roads. Some combination of both might be the right approach, even if enforcement is fairly lax. An enforcement only approach (no limits on the vehicle design) would require serious enforcement using resources which are likely better used on other things in most places. A vehicle-design only approach would limit the usability of the vehicle in some cases, for cargo, steep hills, longer distances and higher speeds, etc.

In the end I find it helpful to remember that the streets aren’t mine. They belong to all of us, collectively, and my own personal contribution to society (taxes, whatever) would never be able to build even the tiniest, tiniest fraction of the various streets and paths that I use in the region. People who get upset at limitations on their use of public resources seem to forget that.

 

[PedalUma]

If you have a private ranch, great, ride whatever you want, how ever you want. But in the commons that is different. My elderly aunt, a bird watcher, was struck by a bike on a public path and died a few days later. Hey, what if when you report an illegal bike (moped) in a public space and as a reward, you get to keep it, provided it gets detuned and made legal?

 

[ExPatBrit]

If you have a private ranch, great, ride whatever you want, how ever you want. But in the commons that is different. My elderly aunt, a bird watcher, was struck by a bike on a public path and died a few days later. Hey, what if when you report an illegal bike (moped) in a public space and as a reward, you get to keep it, provided it gets detuned and made legal?

Was it an e-bike?

Most e-bikes have speedometers, the guys speeding on the trails here are on regular bikes.

I stay under 15mph on trails, the extra speed (40 Kph) is nice for commuting.

 

[harryS]

Seen more problems with the fast road riders on our bike path, but only because there's more of them. As ebikes come up in numbers, our segment will show its bad apples too. I probably see a reckless riding incident every time I ride when it's crowded. Mostly unsafe passing. We have local cops on ebikes now riding our paths on nice days though. I expect common sense will win out here so I don't think speed limits are necessary.

 

[fauconnier]

Speed limits are necessary and relatively easy to enforce. Give me the permission to built a 60 mph E-bike with the actual legislation (permit, insurance) I will do it, and I won't be alone ! The line between E-bike, E-moped and E-motorcycle must be clear and speed limits is the easiest way to achieve it.

 

[Marcela]

If people can't police theirselves somebody will do it. Been done that way for eons.

 

[Pulsar]

People don’t pay attention to speed limits for cars and motorcycles now. Really think those reckless bicyclist will change their ways by enacting speed limits? Won’t happen and will only fill the coffers of local municipalities assuming they have staffing to even enforce such? Don’t need more regulation or more big government BS. Be safe, courteous, ride within ones limits and based on surroundings and weather condition…simple. I like having the ability to haul ass if I want. Never been at the limits of my bike, supposedly about 35mph and probably never will. But if some nutcase is chasing me I like options and the torq my Ultra motor gives me to move quickly. I’ll move to CA if I want more regulations.

 

[mschwett]

texas: where people want big government infrastructure (i assume you didn't build all those roads yourself!) but no regulations so that they can ride fast when someone is "chasing" them!

 

[Alicia Margaret]

I feel there needs to be a restriction. Way too easy to manufacture a ebike that can do 80km/hr and have it get in the hands of someone who has no road driving experience. I fully support high speed bikes but they need to be regulated and require license/insurance past a certain point.

Should that restriction be 32km/hr.....I wish it were more like 40km/hr but I bet if it were 40km/hr I'd want 45km/hr. I pedal and with the assist can maintain 30km/hr and find I get most places in good time and for casual rides I don't care about speed and for long distance touring type rides with panniers I aim for 24-26km/hr anyway to maintain battery so the limit isn't really hampering me on those rides.

Thanks for your opinion