jabberwocky
Well-Known Member
Theres a wack-a-mole effect with regulation. When something becomes a perceived problem among the public, it becomes politically expedient to be seen to be doing something about it. Ebikes have absolutely become a perceived problem. Granted, its mostly an emoto-pretending-to-be-an-ebike problem, but the ebike community largely has itself to blame for not really doing much to draw a line between the two until it became obvious that emotos were going to cause a backlash that caused issues for everyone. And legislators aren't exactly well known for technical nuance or narrowly scoped laws. So you get a general crackdown and some idiotic laws like the NJ one.
The defense against stupid legislation is either a) sheer size, to where so many people participate that no elected official really wants to piss the group off (like cars), or b) effective advocacy to increase the political power of a small group (like traditional cycling advocacy). Ebikers don't have the size where its a political issue to stomp on us in a hamfisted way, and our advocacy is largely reliant on traditional cycling advocacy which is, lets say, fickle.
The defense against stupid legislation is either a) sheer size, to where so many people participate that no elected official really wants to piss the group off (like cars), or b) effective advocacy to increase the political power of a small group (like traditional cycling advocacy). Ebikers don't have the size where its a political issue to stomp on us in a hamfisted way, and our advocacy is largely reliant on traditional cycling advocacy which is, lets say, fickle.
