Arlington County this week issued a
draft resolution to be voted on at a public meeting to be held on November 16 for the County Board to consider revoking it's inequitous prohibtion on ebikes riding on multi use trails. For context Virginia has not yet adopted the BPSA/PfB 3-class model ebike legislation, but does regulate what it calls electric power-assisted bicycles.
While a most welcome development, there are some striking oddities in the draft document, and DC/Northern Virginia ebike commuters might like to email their feedback to the County Board prior to the November 16 decision. Under the draft resolution electric power-assisted bicycles that meet the Virginia power/speed definition (<1,000w/25mph) would be defined in the Arlington Code as a type of "Micro-Mobility Device" (including e-scooters, e-unicycles, e-skateboards, and e-bikes). Among the proposed rules some of the pros and cons I can identify include:
Pros:
-Class 1-3 ebikes would be permitted to ride on Arlington bike trails and sidewalks provided they stay under a speed limit 20mph for the trail (though its unclear if this is a powered speed limit or an absolute speed limit), and for sidewalks two limits are proposed 6mph & 15mph. Virginia law already permits sidewalk riding but does not specify an upper speed limit.
Cons:
- It's unclear to me why the sidewalk speed limit is to apply equally to all Micro-Mobility Devices, an e-bike is not a scooter, skateboard, or e-wheel, with tiny wheels - 6mph is too slow for some e-bikes for powered low-speed manouvering in pedal assist level 1 (eg
Aventon Pace 500), while for some e-bikes 6mph might be too slow for safe unpowered low-speed manouvering where issues like balancing weight, center of gravity, gearing for high speeds, 28"/700c wheel size, etc. require they maintain a higher speed when pedalled.
- Micro-Mobility Devices including e-bikes would all require a functioning speedometer...but there are many ebikes that use LED displays with no speed readout like the
Giant RideControl One, or in the case of electric unicycles and skateboards cannot physically mount a speedometer, at the least this needs rewording to include phone apps by way of an alternative to OEM equipment, but then this would require the rider to always have the phone app on and visible displaying speed, an e-bike handlebar can accommodate a phone mount but an e-skateboard or e-wheel rider would have to be holding the phone in his/her hand in line of sight and that strikes me as unsafe when we discourage texting while riding and those devices sometimes require you move your arms around to physically balance.
- The proposals for regulating shared Micro-Mobility Devices do provide the County with power to revoke an operating permit for a safety violation and inspect any new equipment fitted, but it does not include a clear requirement for operating companies to share safety data. This emerged as a problem this year after it was found Uber and Lyft did not share information about braking problems after omitting power modulators from their Shimano Roller Brake installation against manufacturer advice, which lead to accidents until the devices were withdrawn for adaptation (Lyft's CaBi+ ebikeshare bikes are still not returned to service), but more ominously Uber's JUMP bikes had been fixed 6 months before Lyft's bikes were pulled off the streets.
