micromobility - Bikes, scooters, boards: Whatever floats your goat, this is micromobility
Ebikes, bicycles, scooters, skateboards, longboards, eboards, motorcycles, skates, unicycles, heelies, or an office chair: Whatever floats your goat, this is all things micromobility!
"Transportation using lightweight vehicles such as bicycles or scooters, especially electric ones that may be borrowed as part of a self-service rental program in which people rent vehicles for short-term use within a town or city.
micromobility is seen as a potential solution to moving people more efficiently around cities"
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I'm not sure how it is in the US (I think it varies by state?), but where I am at least, a Class 3 28 mph e-bike would be considered a road vehicle. You would not be allowed to ride those on trails. Legally, they differ from motorcycles only in that they do not require a licence and insurance.
Trail-rated e-bikes top out at Class 2 20 mph. In the UK where the guy in the video lives, it sounds like Class 1 15 mph is as high as you can go legally?
Incidentally, even with a class 3, I think the throttle mode (where you don't need to pedal) is required to top out at 20 mph in most jurisdictions? The higher speeds are only allowed with pedal-assist. Some people remove the pedals altogether on a class 3, and that is illegal where I am.
Anyway, if you see people sailing by at high speeds on trails, this is not legal in most places. The man in the video was trying to push for more clarity in the media that it is the illegal ebikes that are giving all the others a bad name.
Yes, I totally agree with you.
The US is a bit complicated because there aren't really national laws governing trail usage. Most are managed by local municipalities and the rules vary. However, anecdotally I will say that most do not allow class 3 e-bikes. I know mine do not. However, based on comments I see it appears the rules are widely flouted.
Yeah, they're technically not allowed in a lot of places. But there's absolutely zero enforcement of this.
Part of the problem is that enforcement would be a huge pain. The difference between a legal and an illegal ebike is often impossible to discern at a distance, so actual effective enforcement would require stopping and closely inspecting all suspicious-looking ebikes, which would be a huge pain for people who are riding legal ones. (And would cost a lot of money to pay the enforcers.)
Yeah I agree with you. Not to mention the potential violence any amount of police involvement inevitably brings.
However it's starting to feel like there needs to be some kind of solution. If we don't come up with a good one, a bad one may be forced on us. Unfortunately, I don't really have any easy fixes.
Well, there's the possibility of enforcement at the manufacture/import/sale level. Make it illegal to manufacture/import/sell any 'ebike' that's too powerful or too fast. (Defined as any vehicle in the general shape of a bicycle or tricycle, having bicycle-like pedals, and exceeding speed/power limits.)
That moves enforcement away from the street level, making it less difficult and less dangerous.
You'll still have some issues with previously existing overpowered ebikes, and from the occasional person who builds/modifies a DIY one of their own, but that will be much rarer and much less of a problem than what we have now, where anybody can buy one off of Amazon at any time ... often maybe not even realizing what exactly it is that they're buying.