An e-bike is a bicycle.
It has a motor, but mainly it has pedals. The motor assists the e-cyclist in turning the pedals. But the cyclist must still do the work, and the speed remains that of a bicycle.
Manufacturers, and the media, continue to ignore this. The manufacturers want sales. The media wants clicks. Those charged with regulating e-transport must not let themselves be suckered into debating self-serving trolls.
What’s called a “Class-3 e-bike” is thus not a bike at all. Its throttle lets it easily get up to 28 mph, and often more, making the pedals vestigial, an appendix around the motor, a place to put your feet. The bigger the motor, the faster you go, the more comfort you deliver. These vehicles also have bigger tires than e-bikes, making them easy to tell apart. They’re twice as fast, sometimes three or four times faster. They don’t belong on the same path.
Since returning from the Netherlands two months ago, the need to maintain this reality has become clearer to me. It means bike paths must have a speed limit of 15 miles per hour, or 25 kph. If you’re going much faster, unless you’re freewheeling down a hill, you belong on the roadway, with the cars and the other motorcycles. Bike paths are for bikes. They’re defined by speed, not by power.
This speed limit should also define mandatory helmet use and age limits. If you’re going faster than 25 kph on a flat road you must have a helmet, and if your “e-bike” goes faster than 25, you had better be 16 or older.
What About Licenses?
Licensing is both a form of identification and of government control. This answers a lot of questions.
Should kids under 16 be licensed when they get an e-bike? You betcha.
Should adults need a license to get an e-bike? Heck, no. This rule should apply to e-trikes and mobility scooters.
How about a Class-3 or higher? Why, yes. You’re traveling at a speed determined to be dangerous. There’s always a public interest in protecting people traveling at speed.
What about delivery drivers? That’s part of the business license. Every business has several licenses to define operations and through which they pay taxes. Delivery services should be no different. Especially since their heavier loads mean they can be doing serious damage to whatever path they’re using.
Who should issue these licenses? States should issue these licenses. States, not localities, should also issue the broad regulations described above. The idea that some dinky suburb is going to haul you off the road for pedaling with a motor rated at 15 mph while the next town lets you through represents a speed trap. It’s a deliberate effort to zone out those without the money to own a fancy car.
Policies for Safety
There are three speeds for urban mobility. (I asked Perplexity to illustrate this and they still stuck a walker on the bike path, as well as a bike rider on the roadway. They know nothing.)
- Walking requires a path. People need sidewalks.
- Bikes need a path. Bikes and e-bikes deserve safety.
- Cars need roads, and many roads should only be used by cars.
What e-biking has done is create a need for a medium-speed path, by dramatically increasing the number of people traveling at that speed. Whether you’re in a chair, on an e-bike, or out for a spin, you deserve a straight route to your destination. Since the path is narrow, it’s an opportunity to bring people to new places, to creek beds and into the woods, because bikes and e-bikes don’t make the kind of noise cars do.
Where cars and bikes must share the road, everyone should go at the bike’s speed. The idea that a car can go 25 (40 kph) while an e-bike sharing that same road can only do 15 (25 kph) is insane. It’s a recipe for disaster.
Finally, insurance. That’s a private matter, an industry question. If someone wants to write a policy for my e-bike, I’m willing to hear their pitch. If the price is right, I’ll bite. As we get more data on Class 3 use and loss history, that market will come along. I’ll let the lawyers sort out the rest of it.
