C-Note
Well-known member
The problem with them not being insured is.... When they hit your car, guess who's paying for it... That's right! YOU
Let the City know what you want to do about e-bikes - official survey
- Thread starter espro
- Start date
The problem with them not being insured is.... When they hit your car, guess who's paying for it... That's right! YOU
Yes thats true if you choose to go through insurance. But the insurace will take that as a claim same as if you had your windsheild chipped. So you loose your no claim bonus resulting in higher rates.
Its different that a no fault accident involving another automobile
You're wrong though. 32km/h is *bicycle* speed. Should that require insurance? License, sure, maybe, but there's no reason to kill yet another industry with insurance smothering (remember mopeds?)
Same with a bicycle. I can assure that at 300 pounds, I'm a formidable obstacle on my bicycle.
Kill the industry? Please don't compare this contraption with a bicycle because it may be able to reach a similar speed. These e-craps are much wider and generally much slower, so they block traffic big time (and put real bicycle riders in danger). And that contraption actually does weigh more than a bicycle too.
if weight is the issue why not say combined weight of rider and e-bike cannot exceed 300 pounds unless licensed as a limited speed motor vehicle.
e-bikes are just loopholes. would be nicer if they allowed similar vehicles that were more nimble and capable than this poor mode of transportation as we have a market for them just to slip through the loopholes of the law.
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I would laugh my *** off if there was 300 pound law. That would be giving the middle finger to anyone in the obese range lol
Make an exception if the bike weighs 50lb or less. That solves it
someone was complaining about the issue of a heavy e-bike pounding a dent in to a car. we already can't drive tractor trailers with a car licence.
in my opinion they should have never allowed scooter style e-bikes.
this below is just a regular bike with a motor. you get issues for not riding it properly it can be stripped to a regular bike easily.
http://www.scooterunderground.ca/products/electric_bikes/Sanyo_eneloop_main.htm
http://www.stealthelectricbikesusa.com/order.html
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Roomie
Banned
As someone who raced road for years, 32 km/h is nothing. I have two current 14 lb race bikes that are easily worth 10 e-bikes. I can maneuver faster, stop faster and even pace traffic faster. I can also get the eff out of the way if I have to. E-bikes cannot. My bikes are insured by my own choice for value, not like a road policy. Making cyclists have insurance would go over like a ton of bricks. E-bikes aren't powered by the person on them, thus they are a form of engine powered transport and as such should be lic'd and insured to be on the road. What happens if you're on an e-bike and run into a Ferrari or other expensive car (they can cause damage to any car, the point is repairs on that example are huge $$ typically)? That person should eat sh*t because you're e-bike has no insurance? I think not.
Can you just sue the person who hit your car?
油井緋色;1982322 said:
Where do I begin...
In most cases it would end up in small claims court... You'd go through a ringer of a process that would take forever and a half and you'd be lucky to get a judgment for 10% of your court costs. So you get that judgment.. Good luck collecting any money from a guy who can't afford to operate a gas-powered scooter and frequently doesn't even have a fixed address. How's he gonna pay you? What are you gonna do if he says "too bad so sad"? Gets even worse with an expensive car or injuries that require time off work, expensive treatment or permanent injuries. The police won't help you.. Many of those guys either don't have jobs or work under the table and collect welfare, so if you went through the extra ringer to get their wages garnished, how can you do that with a guy who turns in scrap metal for booze money? People who can afford to make up for the damage either drive cars and/or operate scooters/motorcycles.
Like I said, I can do just as much damage to a ferarri on my bicycle as on my ebike. Liabilities exist the second you leave the house; I could damage a car *walking*. Insurance kills modes of transport. Limited speed motorcycles have practically disappeared.
Nowhere but Canada is as good at blaming eachother for problems that don't exist.
We dont know if the problem exists. E-bikes are legal only on a trial basis. We wont know what the true liability of having them on the road is. Im sure people have their bad experience with them and there are deffinatly drunks with previouse DUI's who use them to get arround. I like in a not to urban area so my experiences with them have neutral.
i hope they get rid of the scooter style e-bikes forcing everyone to buy a new mode of transportation and find another loophole.
thats how u stimulate the economy by making people buy new crap.
thats how u stimulate the economy by making people buy new crap.
The trial ended in 2009. It's actually just as illegal to ride them drunk as it is to drive a car drunk, and I'd certainly support some heavier restrictions meant to keep bad riders off the road. Going the wrong way on a one way, running reds, etc. need to be dealt with strongly with any vehicle.
There's a kneejerk reaction to bad drivers on a new mode of transport like this: make them pay insurance, and make sure they're strictly regulated through licensing and registration. That's not really the right way to go about it, because they aren't vehicles like anything else on the road. Despite their stature, the scooter style ebikes are incredibly light. Their frame is no heavier than a bicycle frame, and all the bodywork you see is plastic, The only thing heavy is the battery pack, and maybe the motor. As motorcyclists, you might equate them weight wise with motor scooters, but the really are not anywhere near that heavy.
Knowing this, it's pretty clear they can't cause any more damage than a bicycle, and knowing the speed they can travel, it's clear you can't get any worse hurt on an ebike than a bicycle. Unless you plan on forcing insurance on bicyclists, there can simply be no reason for insurance on ebikes.
Now, as for licensing, it's a fair point that some of these riders simply don't understand road rules at all, but as they are no more dangerous than a bicycle, this must be left to punishment and restrictions on certain classes of riders, not as a blanket restriction. I would agree with anyone having a DUI with a suspended license being restricted from the roads on an ebike. Making filtering illegal on a scooter style ebike illegal would also be acceptable.
Bottom line is that they need to be seen for what they are, seriously no more dangerous than a bicycle, people just don't like it because it's new and it's another small vehicle on the road that pisses them off. Like I said, completely kneejerk reactions here.
I guess you haven't read what other people, in particular I have written. These things may be 'no more dangerous' than a bicycle, but they are not BICYCLES (e-bicycles, whatever). You want them in a separate (regulated) category? Great. But like I said before, they are wide, bulky and slow - they block the road way more than a regular bicycle and put bicycles that try to pass them in danger.
