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Illegal E-Motos Still Being Shipped To NYC Despite Mamdani Cease-And-Desist Deadline - Streetsblog New York City (nyc.streetsblog.org)
submitted 3 days ago by [M] to c/fuckcars@lemmy.world
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[–] [S] 25 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (4 children)

No. Fatbikes can be legitimate e-bikes, if they comply with the classification rules (e.g. maximum assisted speed of 20 mph for Class 1 or 2). Being a fatbike just means it has really wide tires; they aren't necessarily even electric at all.

These things NYC is trying to stop are not bicycles at all, fat or otherwise. They are unlicensed motorcycles, sometimes with vestigial useless pedals for the sole purpose of tricking people into thinking they're something they're not.

Fatbike:

The shit we're talking about here:

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  • [–] 10 points 3 days ago (2 children)

    The shit I don't agree with that NYC is doing is eliminating Class 3 e-bikes. Cutting off pedal assist at 25mph vs. 28mph is such a negligible 3mph difference. This criminalizes a huge amount of bikes that are perfectly legal in the rest of the United States. E-motos like the Surron were already illegal, unregistered motorcycles before Class 3 arbitrarily got axed in NYC.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 days ago* (2 children)

    That negligible difference is actually a fairly large one once the physics of inertia and impacts gets into play. The energy, and therefore the damage, is exponential based on velocity. That ≈6.6km/hr difference increases damage by a lot more than you may suspect, and pedestrians don't generally wear helmets and pads to protect themselves from impacts.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 day ago

    That's a fair point. But I'd assume most of downtown New York City has of speed limit of 25mph anyway. So Class 3 riders shouldn't be going above that, regardless of what their bike is capable of. Whether you drive a Lamborghini or Toyota, you're still obligated to follow the same laws (horrible analogy, I know).

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  • [–] 3 points 1 day ago (1 child)

    It's geometric, not exponential. Going from 25 to 28 freedom units is factor 1.12 and v² increases by factor 1.2544 or 25%.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago (1 child)

    But at 60mph if you crashed into a wall you'd vaporize instantly. Because exponential.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago (1 child)

    No exponential. Geometric. Squared. Energy is E=mv². At a speed of 60 freedom units you're going factor 2.4 times faster than at 20. The energy will be factor 5.76 times higher. Or 476% more if you like.

    The word exponential has a specific meaning. It doesn't just mean really big.

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  • [+] -6 points 3 days ago (1 child)

    If I'm not mistaken, class 3 also has a throttle vs just pedal assist. I think the throttle is great personally. Sometimes it's hard to get started to cross an intersection or something, and the throttle is a huge help. Feels like this kinda kills some stuff for old + disabled.

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  • [–] 8 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

    The shit we're talking about here:

    I've recently been overtaken by someone riding such a bike (of course without a licence or insurance plate). I was driving 50 km/h (~30 mph) in town while he was going like 70 km/h (~44 mph) on the right hand sidewalk (no there's no bike lane on that sidewalk).

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