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this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2026
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micromobility - Bikes, scooters, boards: Whatever floats your goat, this is micromobility
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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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At least here in California, the presence of operable pedals is being rapidly adopted -- in terms of consumer advice and police warnings -- as a quick-and-easy distinguishing factor between an ebike and an e-moto. And it does track with the law, since there are no legal ebikes without pedals. As a way of cutting down on e-motos being sold and ridden as if ebikes, it's a workable definition.
The drawback is that it leads to under-enforcement if that's the only factor considered. That said, I'm less enthusiastic about focusing on enforcement when there's genuine confusion in the marketplace about the thing that parents are buying for their children. I hazard to guess that a fair number of them would regret their purchase if informed that they actually bought a motorcycle capable of freeway speeds.
This aspect of enforcement, I can agree with. And indeed, California strikes some sort of balance with class 1/2 being allowed but subject to the general 15 MPH limit on trails and multiuse paths, and class 3 being prohibited on most off-street surfaces.
This works fairly well for me, since I use my class 3 ebike for traversing long routes between suburbs, so operating in on-street bike lanes is simultaneously faster and more efficient for me than using the sidewalk. I'm a big fan of giving different users the space they need. And the USA is sorely in need of allocating more space for people than for cars.
so wait, are normal bikes allowed on sidewalks and walking paths? That sounds insane to me, what's the point of pedestrian-only things if they're not pedestrian-only?
And how is even the slowest bicycle compatible with people walking on narrow sidewalks? On separate paths i can sorta get it, there's at least room for people to just walk to the side when a cyclist passes, though still i question calling that a "walking path" when people bike there..
In California, yes, that's the default rule. Municipalities have limited authority to regulate road traffic, but can prohibit bikes from sidewalks if they post certain signs. As a result, most municipalities here allow it, with some downtown areas having restrictions where sidewalks are in heavy use.
Sadly, the pre-1900 American conception of the sidewalk as a pedestrian refuge -- paved, free of mud and puddles, in an era where unpaved roads and horse carriages were the norm -- was entirely sidelined in the automobile industry's desire to move product. It would be great if municipalities actually maintained their sidewalks -- in the Western USA, most states make it the responsibility of the adjacent landowner -- but seeing as they're not even required to provide sidewalks, it's truly a block-by-block situation.
As a result, there's every incentive to reuse sidewalks for anything that can use them, despite the obvious walkability problems, issues for people that must use the sidewalk (eg wheelchair users), while also eating the risk of sidewalks not being designed for any wheeled device (and sometimes having no regard for sight lines that would give pedestrians a chance to see an automobile running a stop sign). The very existence of sidewalks in some places has been used to justify not building additional infrastructure for separate uses, such as bike lanes, based on the false premise "nobody bikes, so no need to build infra", which is obviously why nobody bikes. Some places only have a disconnected sidewalk segment because a building (eg school) required it for ADA compliance.
Note that a sidewalk can be properly upgraded to a multi-use path (MUP) that can support mixed traffic (eg bikes, class 1/2 ebikes, (e)scooters, dog walkers, strollers, and pedestrians) but these have to be much wiser (>3 meters) and are only designed for low traffic volumes. MUPs easily reach their design volume if, say, a school has ended class and all the students are walking home.
For the narrowest of legacy sidewalks (ones which would fail the ADA requirements today but are grandfathered if they're left unchanged since installation pre-1990) of maybe 1 meter wide, you are correct that there's no way for a pedestrian and bicyclist to fit in this space. The common result is that the pedestrian steps off and the bicyclist gets by. Under the law, it's supposed to be the other way around, and IMO, it's a lot easier for bikes to ride over grass or surfaces adjacent to the sidewalk.
I agree that pedestrians should have first dibs on sidewalks. The present reality is that this is all artificial scarcity: there's plenty of road space that should be rededicated from automobile lanes or parking so that sidewalks are widened and pedestrians and cyclists have the space they need. This simultaneously solves the e-scooter parking issue, reduces automobile congestion and driving speeds and collisions in cities, and improves air quality and civic life.
The modern automobile is quite good at traveling long distances. So there should be no genuine complaint with having cars drive the long way around a neighborhood or business district, so that pedestrians and cyclists can go the direct route to the front door. Through streets for cars don't need to exist; use movable bollards to allow emergency vehicles to drive into pedestrian areas
Yeah ... let me just slap some pedals on my Harley and tear up the bike paths.