Police - questioning the power rating of your E-bike? or Ticketing you?

[Gordon71]

Sounds like our gun control politicians.

Can't recall seeing any news stories about people murdered by Ebike.

 

[Bikeknit]

some combination of speed, power, and weight limits would make logical sense in terms of safety, but would be difficult to enforce and confusing for riders to understand.

I think the difficulty of enforcing complex regulations is the problem. Most trails are meant to get pedestrians and bicyclists out of traffic. Most of us don't want mopeds zooming down our trails - and I've seen it in my part of the country. At some point an electrified bicycle becomes a moped and drawing the line is not simple. Wherever you draw it, someone will be upset. At the risk of getting pounced on, I have some sympathy for the park and other officials trying to thread this needle.

 

[Gordon71]

I think the difficulty of enforcing complex regulations is the problem. Most trails are meant to get pedestrians and bicyclists out of traffic. Most of us don't want mopeds zooming down our trails - and I've seen it in my part of the country. At some point an electrified bicycle becomes a moped and drawing the line is not simple. Wherever you draw it, someone will be upset. At the risk of getting pounced on, I have some sympathy for the park and other officials trying to thread this needle.

Agreed. The odd thing on the trail that I use most is actually the speed limit. There are lots of steep downhills with sharp corners where one has no idea what might be coming up said trail when they go around that corner. The speed limit on those trails is 20 mph. I doubt the person that set that limit has ever ridden a bike of any kind on that trail as 20 mph is too fast on 90+% of it. I myself have only barely exceeded 15 and that was a bit scary at times. The good news is it's actually not heavily used even in summer so no bad accidents so far that I'm aware of but if there is one I'll bet speed is the main factor and I'll bet that speed is under 20 mph.

 

[prestoOne]

Never been pulled over and asked but ebikes are really just becoming a thing here and all it will take is a few serious incidents or some old biddy with pull for enforcement to be taking a closer look. Most officers don't know the difference between a 250W motor and a 1000W motor but they will and if you are out of line or simply unfortunate expect tickets.

No one really cared about dirt bikes either and there as a riding area near me that was the place to go, people would come 100 miles to ride there; it wasn't legal and the cops didn't care, a wide expanse of dirt bike heaven. One day my friend launched his bike over a hill in some remote area and there was a car right on the track in front of his front wheel. It was the middle of nowhere and it would have been more likely to have hit a moose. He mashed his bike up a bit and broke his wrist. The cops went to the hospital to drop a stack of tickets on him for everything: no insurance, motor vehicle violations, dangerous driving...everything. If someone else got hurt in all of that.....