e-Bikes – Let’s talk

[lordofthemark]

@dasgeh 165984 wrote:

Otherwise, most of y’all are off the trails.

I could see a case for eventually banning carbon fiber road bikes from the section of the MVT between the 4MRT and the 14th Street bridge. I suspect that having LE distinguish carbon fiber from other road bikes would be even harder than having them distinguish different classes of electric bikes.

[vern]

@lordofthemark 165992 wrote:

I could see a case for eventually banning carbon fiber road bikes from the section of the MVT between the 4MRT and the 14th Street bridge. I suspect that having LE distinguish carbon fiber from other road bikes would be even harder than having them distinguish different classes of electric bikes.

GTFO!

But then, there’s plenty of roads to get to the same place.

[Harry Meatmotor]

@dasgeh 165989 wrote:

As a note, most German autobahns now have speed limits, because Germans are human too. Their drivers are better educated, and they do have more serious penalties for violating traffic laws.

Either you don’t know much about the German autobahn or you’re being a little disingenuous, because the origin of the speed limits there have little to do with what you’re insinuating.

[DSalovesh]

@dasgeh 165984 wrote:

The problem is the behavior, not the tool, and we can address the behavior.

As proven by, um … help me out here – where have we heard it before?

[hozn]

@DSalovesh 166002 wrote:

As proven by, um … help me out here – where have we heard it before?

I’m pretty sure it was this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsN0FCXw914&feature=youtu.be&t=35s

[EasyRider]

High-speed.

[EasyRider]

@dasgeh 165982 wrote:

What are you talking about? What negative externalities does a long-haul ebike have that a bike doesn’t have?

I’m talking about MUPs full of Gearcrushers.

[hozn]

@lordofthemark 165991 wrote:

My sense it that some people are questioning whether it will be possible for LE to distinguish Cat 3 ebikes from others.

I think people are just questioning whether that would be realistic here. There is clearly much tighter control over bike/moped in [parts of] Europe (and sounds like maybe in China). (Apparently there’s a subset of people that have secret switches to increase the power of their mopeds [requiring lesser license] to disguise the true speed of their vehicles from law enforcement — so obviously not infallible, but LE are checking on these things there.) You probably have to introduce some sort of registration system for bikes, though, to do this effectively w/ e-bikes. Yeah, probably not going to happen here.

[mstone]

@hozn 166010 wrote:

I think people are just questioning whether that would be realistic here.

I don’t think it’s even a question. LE will not devote resources to this. If problems rise to the level of widespread complaints they’ll bring down a big/broad hammer, but there’s zero chance they’ll be training beat cops on how to assess what class an ebike falls into. So we’ll see the usual pattern of bad behavior, followed by a dragnet that catches a bunch of lesser offenders in order to “do something”, without any real mechanism to address the truly bad behavior.

[Dewey]

@lordofthemark 165991 wrote:

It does sound like Virginia might be well advised to clarify distinctions among different classes of ebikes, as this would give local jurisdictions more options in the future as ebikes become more widespread.

Yes please, also the District of Columbia and Maryland. California in 2015 introduced its 3-tier classification scheme for e-bikes, since adopted by Tennessee, Utah, Arkansas, Colorado, and Illinois, and it’s under consideration by Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin. The legislative push is being led by the Bicycle Product Suppliers Association and PeopleForBikes Coalition. I agree more nuance would help.

[dasgeh]

@DSalovesh 166002 wrote:

As proven by, um … help me out here – where have we heard it before?

But ebikes aren’t guns. Ebikes get people places. And don’t kill people.

[dasgeh]

@mstone 166013 wrote:

I don’t think it’s even a question. LE will not devote resources to this. If problems rise to the level of widespread complaints they’ll bring down a big/broad hammer, but there’s zero chance they’ll be training beat cops on how to assess what class an ebike falls into. So we’ll see the usual pattern of bad behavior, followed by a dragnet that catches a bunch of lesser offenders in order to “do something”, without any real mechanism to address the truly bad behavior.

All of that is correct, so what’s the policy should we follow. Ban all ebikes from trails, because of this amorphous, unproven conjecture? Or let more people use our trails, taking more cars off the road, putting more cyclists in drivers line of sight, increasing safety for all on bikes?

[dasgeh]

@lordofthemark 165991 wrote:

Due to a recent rise in electric-bicycle-related accidents, caused mostly by inexperienced riders who ride on the wrong side of the road, run red lights, don’t use headlights at night etc.[/B]

That sounds like what the naysayers thought would happen with bikeshare. Those are speed-related causes.

[sjclaeys]

@dasgeh 166016 wrote:

But ebikes aren’t guns. Ebikes get people places. And don’t kill people.

But cars aren’t guns. Cars get people places. And don’t kill . . .

[sjclaeys]

@dasgeh 165989 wrote:

So let Cat 3 use the trails for now and only ban them if we see a problem with Cat 3 ebikes causing collisions/injuries/near misses with others.

Interesting approach to assessing the risk of a vehicle or any product, do nothing until someone gets hurt. Reminds me of the neighbor against traffic calming measures because no kids had been yet hit by a car. So that we know when any mitigating measures should be taken, how many injures will be required?

[Author]

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