You have to register and pass a test if you’re under 17? For a bicycle that moves the same speed as a regular bicycle? Yeah, no one is going to do that.
Are governments doing more to control ebikes than firearms?
Given that New Jersey is one of if not the most restrictive state for firearms regulations in the country, I don’t think this analogy is quite as sharp as you were expecting.
TIL, thank you
But I’m still serious. Places outside nj are trying to pass e bike regulations too, and I’m sure the panties are twisting harder than for gun control.
Try buying a gun and you will find out the answer is no.
When’s the last time you were required to buy and maintain insurance for your gun?
Everyone should be required to buy and maintain insurance for their gun.
I don’t disagree; but the fact that you don’t have to insure a gun while you do have to insure a bicycle is the point here…
When’s the last time you had a background check and waiting period to buy a bicycle?
They are legislated differently because they are different things that can cause harm in different ways. Pretending there are no gun laws is a symptom of being terminally online. I have nothing further to say on the subject.
Nobody has said there are no gun laws; just that currently there seems to be more interest in restricting access to ebikes than there is in restricting access to guns, though guns cause far more societal harm.
While I don’t have a direct reference to the numbers for this; injury and death caused by firearms seems to be far more common and more severe than ebike related injuries - at least in America.
A couple of years ago. I had to pick up my bike a few days after buying it.
I see a ton of people driving erratically on e bikes. Either going against traffic, cutting through intersections, riders wearing headphones, etc. it’s got wheels and a motor, it’s a motor vehicle and should be treated as such. As far as speed goes, you would have to be Lance Armstrong (steroids and all) to go 20 mph on a pedal bike consistently. I’m exaggerating slightly but you would still have to be an A rider, and A riders ain’t lazy enough to use e bikes
Edited to make the last sentence make sense.
It’s pretty trivial for any out of shape schlub to get a garden variety bicycle up to 30 or 35 MPH with the aid of a hill, but only if you don’t go by averages and discount the several minutes spent huffing and puffing up the other side first. I used the big hill in our town to crack 40 MPH once when I was a teenager, complete with no helmet and probably while wearing flip-flops.
Back then the pearl-clutchers screeched about pedal bikes at exactly the same tone and pitch as they’re doing now about e-bikes and electric kick scooters, but analog bikes have since been normalized. The ones now clearly have no idea of the types of shenanigans we got up to with our pedal bikes when we were kids. Back then if you were truly a cool cat you’d fit a little two stroke engine to your bicycle. If you weren’t, we’d skitch on the backs of tractor trailers as they passed through through town, preferably starting by grabbing one that was stopped at a (or rather at the time the) red light.
What it really boils down to is that adults absolutely cannot stand young people having access to personal transportation because it makes said young people harder to control. It was the same shit with skateboards, and before that it was the same shit with roller skates, and before that probably penny farthings. I’ll bet you the first time some caveman’s kid took a carved stone wheel and rolled across the village on it his parents complained about it.
it’s got wheels and a motor, it’s a motor vehicle and should be treated as such
Are you in favor of licensing and testing for other things that fit this definition? What about those 12v plastic toy cars that are sized for children? What about mobility carts for the elderly?
What about mobility carts for the elderly?
I have nothing to contribute here except sharing my one anecdote about this, which is that I once personally witnessed a guy on one of those electric mobility scooters receive a DUI because he was trundling it down the shoulder of the road, presumably while smelling of beer. Given the individual in question the latter part wasn’t much of a stretch. So in some cases, i.e. the ones where the law can be used to harass you, they actually are considered motor vehicles already!
You can get a DUI on a horse too. In Japan you can get DUI on a bicycle, though I’ve never heard about that getting enforced against a non-foreigner.
No argument against what you said, but technically receiving a ticket doesn’t mean it’s a valid ticket or that you’ll be found guilty in court. I have no clue if what you described as legal or not. But I do remember a guy using his riding lawn mower to get back and forth to the bar because he would drive home drunk and he lost his car driving privileges. I don’t remember ever hearing if he was ever stopped by law enforcement for driving drunk on it.
Semantic whataboutism.
No. I’m telling a person to use the same logic for multiple things in the same category. I mentioned multiple electric vehicles that go slow speeds. Whataboutism would be if I said, “yeah but what about Donald Trump, he doesn’t follow rules so we shouldn’t. And what about guns having fewer restrictions than eBikes?” Bringing up entirely different subjects.
Then car drivers can’t complain when cyclists take up an entire car lane, traveling at speeds under 25mph. Every car driver will be slowed down and you’ll need to be okay with that.
you would have to be Lance Armstrong (steroids and all) to go 20 mph on a pedal bike consistently
This has to be a fucking joke. In Germany you regularly see grannies do 30kph(20mph). I can easily maintain 40 for longer periods or do a sprint of 60 for a minute, but I’m very fit.
Edited to make the last sentence make sense.
Keep editing…
Way to take the high road, chief, although that was pretty good 😊
I would think cities would want e-bikes to be accessible. I’d be surprised if difference in risk to both riders and those around them as compared to regular pedal bikes is anything other than negligible. But it’s an ultra low emissions (assuming a polluting source of power used to charge the battery) with lower infrastructure requirements and maintainance than cars.
This is just speaking for myself, but I bet it’s a common sentiment among e-bike owners. I have no interest in bicycling as a hobby or method of exercise. I also own a car. But I do like having a motorized extremely cheap to use means of transportation to use around town, and I often do.
Many cities have speed laws for e-bikes because they uncomfortably straddle the line between a motorized vehicle and not, and it is hard to tell the difference on sight. A Class 3 e-bike can legally go 28 mph and there isn’t much preventing people from modifying their e-bikes to go faster.
The reason why they are getting regulated in NJ is because a lot of e-bike riders are either riding them on sidewalks at near car speeds or they are going faster on roads but ignoring road regulations like stop signs. The e-bikes have to go somewhere while both pedestrians and motorists don’t want to give up their space.
The biggest controversy seems to be that the regulations impose similar burdens on lower speed ebikes:
The law treats a low-speed 15-20 mph (25-32 km/h) throttle-equipped Class 2 e-bike much more like a motorcycle than like a bicycle, despite its similar performance to a standard Class 1 pedal-assist bike. Bike shops and advocacy groups have instead urged lawmakers to exempt low-speed e-bikes under 20 mph (32 km/h) from licensing, registration, and insurance requirements while focusing regulation on higher-speed, higher-powered machines that more closely resemble electric mopeds.
I won’t be surprised if the law changes as the people who wanted the regulations are somewhat mollified by the outcome or are still pissed that kids are ignoring stop signs.
That said, it will probably be easier for them to get Class 1&2 grouped together due to disabilities and get the insurance requirements waived, but I won’t be surprised if they keep the license as a requirement even if they lower the age requirement. New Jersey was one of the first states to institute a restricted teenage driver’s license. I think people supporting e-bike regulation are still going to want some forced test to ensure that riders know the rules of the road
I’m sure they will but it’s still bullshit, licensing was never needed for bicycles, licenses are only justified for automobiles because they kill so many people due to their size and speed. Bureaucracy is a burden mentally, practically and on privacy, not everything needs to be managed and catalogued by the state.
That’s New Jersey for you.
And bikes do not damage roads like cars do. All the road repairs? Due to heavy vehicles (average 4,000 pounds today) driving on the roads. EVs are great but they are heavier, so more damage. Meanwhile, bikes do not cause damage to roads.
This biggest risk to riders of either is, by far, vehicles.
The article says nothing about enforcement. Did they start enforcing this yet? What does that look like? How aggressive have they been?
shocking, requiring sending money to bloodthirsty insurance corps makes people not want less useful, but much cheaper and environmentally friendly cars
There are ways to tackle those road-rats with cheap, fast motorbikes with throttle overrides, pretending to be e-bikes. This law ain’t it, and everybody told them that would happen.
The only silver lining is other states will learn to tailor their laws more narrowly so they don’t prevent grandparents from toodling around on their Class 2 bikes.
good thing you can just ride a regular bike
For tens of millions of people, e-bikes make the difference between bikes as a form of exercise and bikes as a form of practical transportation.
Not if you’re disabled.
Dealers who specialize in mobility-focused transportation say disabled customers are returning newly purchased e-bikes or abandoning plans to buy them altogether because they fear they won’t qualify for licensing or insurance requirements. One retailer described customers losing transportation to work or school because of the new rules.
damn u right tho :\\
How do you not qualify for licensing unless it is due to age?
I can, but that doesn’t mean everyone can: Many have injuries, disabilities, or other reasons that make a traditional bicycle non-viable.
Personally? I ride normal bikes probably about as often as I ride e-bikes, maybe even a little more (Priority Folder is probably my #1), but I still think it’s important to recognize that not everyone is in a position to ride a bike to work because of health or other practical reasons.
