I live in an entire city run by jerks who hate ebikes and their riders, so I know what it's like to put up with being ebike shamed.
I'm in Toronto, Canada. It's a city that's ruled by a spandexer club called CycleTO. I say "ruled" literally, because three city councillors belong to CycleTO. Since the spandexer club hates ebikes and their riders, so does the city government. They also have all of the local news media under their spell, so every year (usually just as the weather starts to warm up) there are the obligatory series of articles demonizing ebikes and everything about them. Every one of these articles always contains a lengthy quote from the president of CycleTO, all about why those dastardly ebikes should be kept off of THEIR bike infrastructure. There's an ebike club in the city but nobody ever asks their opinion. Ebike riders are portrayed as drunks who lost their drivers' licenses and ride their ebikes reckless and drunk, or scruffy mentally ill bums, and their ebikes are painted as high speed weapons of death on wheels.
What CycleTO demands, CycleTO gets. They're downtowners, so millions of dollars per year are poured into fancy downtown divided bike lanes, separated bike lanes, bike lanes protected by concrete barriers, bike lanes with their very own sets of traffic lights, bike lanes with pretty paving stones in different colours. Every single downtown street and laneway has bike lanes. Some streets are covered in so many bike lanes the drivers get confused and run into each other. Of course, ebikes aren't allowed anywhere near these wonderful bike lanes. Outside of the downtown, bike lanes are few and far between and consist of a painted line with a few bike icons a foot from the edge of the roads, only on a few major streets. These bike lanes are never maintained, so they're full of cracks and potholes while the area used by drivers is kept smooth as glass. They also aren't enforced, so they're often used as parking lots. They maganimously allow ebikers to use those, although every year there are calls for "dangerous" ebikes to be denied access to these lanes as well. These lanes are so bad that when I used to ride my e-scooter, I was constantly being thrown out of my seat and nearly off the scooter.
We have paved park trails, but they only grudgingly allow ebikes. The rule is that if you want to use the park trails, you have to shut your motor off or at least use a low level pedelec. Scooters are strictly verboten. However, cops routinely harass ebikers in parks and try to tell them that because their bike has a motor, even if it's shut off, they're breaking the law.
Our buses all have bike racks on the front, and bikes are allowed on the subway. "Dangerous" ebikes need not apply.
The constant barrage of negative propaganda and restrictive laws against ebikes has created a menace for ebikers here. First of all, we get harassed by cops, who aren't trained properly on the laws governing ebikes. They pull people over and impound their ebikes because they're not wearing a full DOT motorcycle helmet, despite the fact that by law we only have to wear bicycle helmets. They pull riders over just to harass them, accusing them of doing something they didn't do, or giving them the third degree about "where did you come from, where are you going, what's your address and phone number?" One guy from the local ebike club was hassled for two hours by a pair of cops. They even forced him to do a roadside sobriety test. At the end they took his ebike anyway without giving a reason. It costs hundreds of dollars to retrieve an impounded vehicle whether or not you did anything wrong.
Then there are the drivers who've read all of those media articles and taken them to heart. They tailgate while leaning on horns, they follow alongside an ebike for several blocks giving the rider the finger and shouting obscenities, they cut across the rider's path to make a right turn while flipping the rider off. I even had one come up behind my scooter and start pushing it down the road with his bumper. I could have been killed. Cyclists are just as bad, especially the spandexers. They also shout obscenities, flip off, and if they know an ebike is coming up behind them they'll slow down or tap their brakes to force the ebiker to slow down behind them. If there's no traffic I just pull out to their and blow past them at full speed, which drives them nuts.
To add to the fun, all of the municipalities around here have different laws about ebikes. So, any time I have to pass through another municipality I have to look up and memorize their rules first. The good news is that those cities have a much saner attitude towards ebikes.
It sounds really bad, and it is, but in the 3 years I've been riding ebikes around Toronto I've gotten used to it. I find that scrupulously following the rules of the road, staying off the busiest streets, wearing a visibility vest and having reflective tape everywhere, and being polite even when others are rude all help reduce confrontations. I live far from downtown anyway. I also get a fair number of people who are nice and ask questions, and I find that makes up for all the jerks out there.
