eBikes. Are they bikes? Do they belong in the bike lane?

What's the deal with the lady flying past me at 20mph? Does that thing belong in the bike lane or the street? It's like an electric moped.

Views: 1922

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Paul Lazzaro on June 5, 2016 at 3:25pm

Does not belong in the bike lane.  Nothing wrong with it, but it's a motor vehicle.

Permalink Reply by Jim Reho on June 5, 2016 at 4:21pm

Anything with an electric motor or gas engine belongs in the street.  Bike lanes are for completely human-powered bicycles.  I would accept exceptions for the elderly and the disabled.  No ebike on a bikeway should be capable of going more than 15 m.p.h., if even that.    

Permalink Reply by David Altenburg on June 5, 2016 at 4:40pm

Yeah, the speed is my biggest issue w/ e-bikes in the bike lanes. In general, by the time a cyclist has gotten to the point where they can sustain 20mph, they have quite a bit of bike-handling experience under their belt. Not so when all it takes to go that fast is the turn of a throttle.

Permalink Reply by V W on June 5, 2016 at 6:30pm
Can we stop talking about the gas powered bikes in the same breath as E bikes? E bikes don't typically go as fast, aren't as loud, dont produce exhaust, and often are pedal assist and not just press a button and go.
Permalink Reply by Tricolor on June 6, 2016 at 5:45am

Most modified bikes with gas motors are cobbled-up rattletraps that are far slower than any e-bike I see on the lake.

Permalink Reply by dav on June 6, 2016 at 2:24am

The Bafang BBS02 eBike conversion kit has a top speed of 32mph(!) in "throttle only" mode.  I don't think that something like that belongs on the Lakefront Path or the bike lane.  I have seen reviews of ebikes that have only a pedal assist mode that cut-off at 20mph.  I'm thinking that if it has a throttle, keep it in the street.

Permalink Reply by V W on June 6, 2016 at 2:51am
At that point yes it's no longer street legal without license plates (I believe the law for E bikes is that they're treated as bicycles as long as they aren't able to go above a certain speed). But E bikes like this in my experience are the exception and not the rule. Most commercially affordable E bikes go 20 and under (mostly under). I've seen a negative sentiment against E bikes on these forums but I haven't seen any statistics much less even anecdotes of E bikes posing any kind of special danger.
Permalink Reply by Paul Lazzaro on June 6, 2016 at 3:52am

Interesting opinion piece about the wisdom of mixing bicycle and ebike traffic:

http://www.copenhagenize.com/2014/02/the-e-bike-sceptic.html

Permalink Reply by V W on June 6, 2016 at 4:41am
That is an interesting article. I like the distinction between "pedelec" (electric assist which requires pedaling) and "E scooter" (doesn't require pedaling). I hope people will make this distinction instead of painting all E bikes with a broad brush.

Quote from the article "They highlight that 20% of e-bike crashes send the cyclist into intensive care. Only 6% of crashes on normal bikes end up in intensive." I wonder if this has to do with the fact that a higher proportion of E bike riders are elderly and or obese and or otherwise more susceptible to injury. Also the statistic about 10% of all bike fatalities in Denmark involving E bikes- well what percentage of active riders are E bike users over there? He mentions anecdotally that lots of E bikes are barely used, but I don't know if it's any more than instances of people biking normal bikes and not using them.

Finally, it would be interesting to see statistics of the proportion of different kinds of normal bikes that are involved in crashes that cause injury, by the logic here I could make a similar skeptical argument. Let's say incidents of road bike crashes causing injury are way higher than beach cruisers or tricycles. One could demonize road bikes "but they're so fast and so flimsy and you're more likely to land head first rather than feet first because of the posture!"
Permalink Reply by Paul Lazzaro on June 6, 2016 at 5:14am

"I wonder if this has to do with the fact that a higher proportion of E bike riders are elderly and or obese and or otherwise more susceptible to injury."

If that's true, Ebikes let them go quite a bit faster than such people would be able to ride without electric assist (this is even more of an issue in the US, where the allowable speed of 20 mph is higher than the EU limit of 25 kmph).  Also, see David Altenburg's comment above.  Going faster than your health or skill allows creates a danger, regardless of the type of bike you ride.

I think electric-assist can be a really good thing (for example, to help people with knee problems).  But I'm concerned that too many ebikes go too fast to coexist well with bicycles.

Permalink Reply by V W on June 6, 2016 at 5:32am
On the other hand, maybe without E bikes they wouldn't ride at all, and the aggregate health benefit of all the people doing electric assist pedaling instead of being sedentary outweighs the negative health impact of the occasional crash.

Also I'm not sure what the alternative is if E bikes are really a nuisance. Ban them from bike lanes? OK but 20mph (which is the upper limit allowed by law as posted below) is not really fast enough to keep up with fast moving car traffic on a busy street. Special E bike lanes (as mentioned in the article)? We barely have the money to do regular bike lanes which are still needed in many parts of the city as it is.
Permalink Reply by Jim Reho on June 6, 2016 at 6:36am

I ride on busy city streets all the time, and I'm pretty sure I never hit 20 m.p.h.  Nor do many cyclists I see out there.  A knowledgeable ebiker would have plenty of speed available.  There's no such thing as a free lunch.  Having a motor is not a substitute for understanding what you're doing, wherever you are.             

RSS

Groups

© 2008-2016   The Chainlink Community, L.L.C.   Powered by

Disclaimer  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service