Trying To Get Away with Riding an Illegal E bike Don't be stupid. You could end up behind bars.

[Athena]

As more electric vehicles become evident in various jurisdictions, they are drawing the attention of LEOs especially in certain states.
According to AZ 28-733
§28-733. Restrictions on use of controlled access highway
A. The director may, and local authorities by ordinance may, prohibit the use of any part of a controlled access highway… by pedestrians, bicycles or other nonmotorized traffic…

The following provides 10 illegal things to try to put over on LEOs. I have seen these and a lot more. Needless to say they did not turn out well for their riders.



https://www.electricbike.com/illegal-ebike-riding/

 

[Alphbetadog]

The statue that you cited is the one in AZ that allows for controlled access highways, such as freeways, to restrict access by pedestrians, bicycles and other non-motorized traffic, and low powered motorized vehicles. This is pretty typical and makes sense with the high speeds that are posted on these limited access highways. In AZ, the restrictions are often not in place where there is no other reasonable route that can be taken. It has nothing to do with ebikes per se.

 

[Athena]

I put the AZ statute in as more riders get careless with the exhilaration of a powered vehicle. The url is really the interesting part.

Actually there are some riders that think their e bike is capable of going on highways. In one case an e biker was pulled over on the access ramp of a highway.

Officer : are you aware that you cannot take your e bike on a highway.

Rider: Oh its more than an e bike.

Officer: vehicles that do less than 50 mph cannot gain access to this highway.

Rider. This little modified baby can do over 50.

Officer: Really? How so?

Rider: The motor is from an electric vespa.

Officer: Wow you modified it?

Rider: Yup

Officer: So it's not really an e bike.

Rider: No it's an e bike see the sticker. No one will really know what I did.

Officer: Thank you for your confession.

Cameras are a wonderful thing.

And then there was the rest of the story.

 

[TForan]

I ride an "illegal" bike and never have a problem. LEOs up here also ride e-bikes, so they are familiar with them.My approach is to ride with extreme courtesy and always be polite . The only comment from the LEOS ? "Nice bike ! ".

 

[Hairball]

I kind of scolded a friend of mine who has an e-bike that does about 30... he and his friend were riding down the beach full speed, people were yelling for them to slow down and he admitted he almost hit a kid... I asked him not to ruin it for the rest of us by doing stupid stuff like that... 1 kid gets hurt and everything changes.
I ride down the beach in PAS 1 or 2. I stop for people to cross in front of me, I never get yelled at and end up getting into conversations about the bike pretty often... So much so that I am considering a e-bike rental business on the beach.

 

[CodyDog]

There are always the few that ruin it for others. I like the fact that a lot of manufacturing companies are producicng ebikes that look more like a regular bikes. I gave it a thought before purchasing my wife's class III but by all means she is not a speed demon.

I'm not sure that companies that manufacture the fast ebikes, such as the new 1000watt Scrambler by Juice Bikes, are good are doing us any favors. Yes, I think the Scambler is pretty cool but that's not the issue. You know people are going to ride ebikes like the Scrambler on bike and hiking trails at full speed. I know the manufacture markets them as off road but in reality people will zoom around on their 1000watt hub drives irresponsibly. Those are the type of situation that encourage and promote restrictions.

Also OP, you create this thread twice somehow.