Let the City know what you want to do about e-bikes - official survey

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I have never ridden on a sidewalk. The people I've raced/ridden with haven't either. Again the point was missed. If you ride anything with a motor why shouldn't it be regulated like every other engine powered vehicle on the road? If I limit my gsxr to 32 km/h does that mean I shouldn't have to pay insurance too? Fair is fair isn't it?
 
Drumstyx, you keep trying to suggest that bicycles and e-bikes (scooter style) are the same, but they clearly are not.

A bicycle weighs, say 20 to 40lbs. These e-scooter bikes you like so much weigh significantly more: up to 264 lbs by law. That is an enormous difference.

And they ARE also significantly WIDER than a bicycle, wide enough to make a difference on city roads.
And they are not as agile as a bicycle.

And what Firestart says is very true: a cyclist that can sustain 32 kmph on a roadway is in shape and knows the rules of the road. ANYONE can hop on one of these 260 lbs ebikes and go barreling down the road, without a clue. That makes a big difference, in city traffic.

If a person weighs 300lbs, i seriously doubt that they'll attempt to ride a regular bicycle down a busy traffic roadway.

If you want to ride an e-bike so much, ride the bicycle style. These scooter e-bikes either need to be taken off the roadway, or licensed as LSM's with higher top speeds.
 
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In Ontario e-bikes are limited to 120kg while a LSM Honda Ruckus weighs 88kg. Cut the max weight limit of an e-bike in half, remove the power/speed restictions, allow electric motors up to a certain wattage (ie 3000w aprox 4hp) in the legal definition of a LSM and bump them up to LSM status. If it looks like a LSM, operates like a LSM, is used like a LSM and if unrestricted can possibly hit speeds similar to a LSM it probably should be considered a LSM.

Keep the e-bike more or less as is but lower the max weight to 60kg to cover every overweight e-bike conversion kit out there, ban external throttles while requiring some sort of user power input sensor and add in some restriction along the lines of "Riders feet may only supported by pedals connected to a crank intended to propel the vehicle and may not be supported by floor boards, running boards, footpegs etc."
 
Indoorwindmill said:
In Ontario e-bikes are limited to 120kg while a LSM Honda Ruckus weighs 88kg. Cut the max weight limit of an e-bike in half, remove the power/speed restictions, allow electric motors up to a certain wattage (ie 3000w aprox 4hp) in the legal definition of a LSM and bump them up to LSM status. If it looks like a LSM, operates like a LSM, is used like a LSM and if unrestricted can possibly hit speeds similar to a LSM it probably should be considered a LSM.

Keep the e-bike more or less as is but lower the max weight to 60kg to cover every overweight e-bike conversion kit out there, ban external throttles while requiring some sort of user power input sensor and add in some restriction along the lines of "Riders feet may only supported by pedals connected to a crank intended to propel the vehicle and may not be supported by floor boards, running boards, footpegs etc."
Click to expand...

makes sense to me.
 
Indoorwindmill said:
In Ontario e-bikes are limited to 120kg while a LSM Honda Ruckus weighs 88kg. Cut the max weight limit of an e-bike in half, remove the power/speed restictions, allow electric motors up to a certain wattage (ie 3000w aprox 4hp) in the legal definition of a LSM and bump them up to LSM status. If it looks like a LSM, operates like a LSM, is used like a LSM and if unrestricted can possibly hit speeds similar to a LSM it probably should be considered a LSM.

Keep the e-bike more or less as is but lower the max weight to 60kg to cover every overweight e-bike conversion kit out there, ban external throttles while requiring some sort of user power input sensor and add in some restriction along the lines of "Riders feet may only supported by pedals connected to a crank intended to propel the vehicle and may not be supported by floor boards, running boards, footpegs etc."
Click to expand...

With regards to power, even unrestricted they can't go very fast. They're actually engineered to only be able to go 32km/h without damaging the motor/controller. They can be modded of course, but they'll eat themselves with heat, and the controller as is simply won't take it (it'll literally blow up).
 
How about forgetting the whole "e" part of this, and just accept that a motor is a motor, whether powered by a battery, gas, diesel, moonbeams or whatever.

The question then becomes: at what power level should it require regulation?

We don't differentiate between a gas powered car, hybrid or all electric, so far as licencing and rules of the road are concerned, why should we make any distinction for two-wheelers?

When my step-dad was a kid in Holland, he had a little 10cc gas motor mounted to the front forks of his bicycle, it would push him along on flat surfaces at about a normal, casual riding speed, but he would still have to pedal to go uphill.

I don't have a problem with people riding something like that without any regulation beyond what's needed for a human powered bicycle. Similarly, I think disabled people should be able to have powered mobility devices that let them move along at the same pace as normal walking traffic.

But as soon as you get higher powered - certainly 30+ kph is well above that - I think it is perfectly justified to start considering ANYTHING motor-powered to be a motor vehicle. That includes e-bikes, scooters for the disabled (the ones that I see passing bicycles in the bike lanes), pit bikes, rainbow-powered magic ricshaws... anything.

Maybe total power in torque at the wheel, or power to weight ratio, or something like that should be the measure, and it certainly would be sensible to have multiple classes, with different insurance and licencing needs.

We already have different vehicle classes, licences and insurance requirements on the 'big' end of the scale - cars, trucks, A-Z transport, multi-trailer transport, busses, etc. Seems to me is that all we need is a few more categories on the 'small' end.
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