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[-] hraegsvelmir@ani.social 7 points 1 day ago

Not the OP, but I'm one of the people who uses the sidewalk, parks and other spaces where even regular bicycles are not meant to be ridden by existing law, and I've had plenty of people on ebikes and mopeds nearly clock me because they're going off roads and designated biking paths at 30mph or more. I've nearly been taken out while bike commuting in the designated bike path while I was exceeding the posted road speed limit by a few mph (really long downhill straight section of my commute without any intersections, so just inertia could get me above 30mph according to my cycling computer), only to nearly get sideswiped by some asshole swerving across multiple lanes of traffic on their fully motor-powered bikes trying to overtake me while weaving in and out of other traffic.

I'm not opposed to e-bikes per se, and I would vastly prefer they be adopted as a widespread replacement to cars, but you cannot argue in good faith that this ebikes with heavy batteries and frames and components that are much heavier than a typical bike, which can obtain much higher speeds than a typical consumer bike for any Joe off the streets who hops on one instantly, are not more dangerous than conventional bikes are to others.

As @ToastedRavioli@midwest.social said, it's not necessarily an inherent issue with all ebikes, but the users have repeatedly demonstrated, they cannot be counted on to use their ebikes in a safe manner without the compulsion of penalties and consequences for their actions. I personally watched one of these assholes whip around a blind corner faster than surrounding street traffic, only to jump up on the sidewalk and immediately t-bone a car that had been in the middle of backing out of a parking lot around the the corner where this guy couldn't see him since before he even approached the intersection.

Ebikes are not bad, in an of themselves, but they're in a similar situation to kids riding dirt bikes and ATVs in city streets a few years ago. They by a vehicle that is illegal for the way the want to use it, use it in this already prohibited manner, if they haven't gone out of their way to find a grey market bike from overseas that is already illegal by virtue of by-passining limiters or just not having them to begin with, and then we get to see their mom and girlfriend crying on the news about how it's so unfair, and their son is just a good boy and people are being mean to him because he turned somebodies' mom into a bloody stain on the street when they were just going about their day.

They kill and harm not just others, but themselves, at a horrifying rate, so some level of restrictions and regulations in clearly necessary here. Honestly, some level of registration, mandatory safety training and insurance is going to be necessary, given the level of damage people riding them irresponsibly can cause to themselves an others, and there will have to be a point where some people lose their privileges to operate them because they've shown themselves to be too irresponsible, same as with cars.

this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2026
142 points (97.3% liked)

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