While riding my e-bike around Atlanta this weekend, I saw something important.
Most of the people I passed weren’t pedaling.
People were on e-bikes. But they weren’t all on the Class 2 e-bike I’ve been riding. Most were on what are called Class 3s, which don’t require pedaling and can go 28 mph (45 kph). They were riding on motorcycles, on roads and on paths like the Beltline.
The point is they were riding. They weren’t pedaling. (Shown are some of the bikers at the recent memorial for Ken Rosskopf.)
Bicycling advocates are in a quandary. We want more people to be riding at a bicycle’s speed on the road, to encourage the construction of infrastructure just for us. But people are lazy. When they find an easier solution, they take it.
A motorcycle seat on a cycle where pedaling is optional is an easier solution.
Manufacturers are encouraging this, with ads calling e-motorcycles e-bikes. Some ads claim that you can enjoy an unlicensed motorcycle without a helmet, simply by buying their “e-bike,” on sale now for under $1,000.
Many of these e-motos can go faster than 28 mph. Some can go much faster. I’ve seen ads for e-motos going up to 60, even 70 mph. All these ads claim to be for “e-bikes.”
An e-moto topping out at 28 mph can ride along car traffic on a shared street. An e-moto topping out at 45 can ride on any city street. An e-moto topping out at 60 can ride a stroad, a 5-lane road with a posted speed limit of 45. If it can do 70 it can go on the freeway.
Technically.
Speed Kills. Size Does, Too
My Class 2 Edison weighs 45 pounds. A Class 3 e-bike with a motorcycle seat can weigh up to 80 pounds. If I run into you on the Atlanta Beltline, you probably won’t be hurt. I don’t go faster than 10 mph in traffic. If a kid on a Class 3 runs into you, you might be killed. It’s not just because the kid doesn’t know how fast he’s going or may not care. It’s because his bike is a lot heavier than my bike.
You can’t expect manufacturers, out of the goodness of their hearts, to educate the public on the differences between my bike and the kid’s bike. That’s not their job. Their job is to build and sell things people want, and people want to go fast. Especially kids.
I’ve been concerned about this since I first began writing about e-bikes, over two years ago. As e-motos have been adopted my voice has grown louder. Most cities and states are well behind the curve here. Many well-intentioned e-bike advocates are telling folks like me to calm down.
But what my recent riding tells me is that the e-bike “golden age” is about over. We are entering an e-moto era. The mass market doesn’t want to push a bike up a hill, no matter how good it feels at the top. They want to get where they’re going, faster than before.
End of The Golden Age
Look closely at this cargo bike again.
A front-loading cargo bike, even one rated as a Class 2, can weigh 100 pounds. Add a couple of kids and it’s 200 pounds. If the motor cuts out on that bike, the rider isn’t huffing it home, as I did when my Edison’s controller conked out a few weeks ago. They’re calling home and putting the thing in the back of a RAM pick-up.
She didn’t get that e-bike to look ripped at the pool. She got it because it’s cheap and, when you add in the time spent getting in, getting out, and parking (especially parking), it gets her there and back faster than the car. She’s practical, she’s smart. She is buying a vehicle.
The answer to the quandary is an enforceable speed limit. A bike path, like the Beltline, or like the Silver Comet, must have an enforceable speed limit of 15 mph, when there’s traffic. That doesn’t mean cops with speed guns. It means signs with lights all around them, as in school zones, and when the lights go on the speed gun does, too. The speed gun has a camera, and if it catches you, you’re ticketed.
Does that mean e-bike licensing? Yes. It will come and, sadly, it will come only after a lot of people die in e-bike “accidents.” Just know there are no such things as accidents. There are only crashes that occur because of bad design, bad behavior, and inadequate laws.
