On Sat, 31 Aug 2019 23:15:29 -0400, Radey Shouman
wrote:

Sir Ridesalot writes:

On Saturday, 31 August 2019 08:51:55 UTC-4, Stephen Bauman wrote:
On Friday, August 30, 2019 at 11:33:17 PM UTC-4, Frank Krygowski wrote:
To me, this seems nuts - 28 miles per hour on park paths?

https://news.yahoo.com/apnewsbreak-c...142615810.html

It's been pointed out that until now, if you could ride 28 mph, you had probably
spent lots of time riding a bike. By trial and error, if nothing else, you knew
a bit about handling the bike at speed.

Now we can get prosperous newbies who can barely balance blasting along at high
speed past hikers and horses. Crazy.

- Frank Krygowski

28 mph e-bikes mixing with pedal bikes on bike trails and urban bike
lanes is bad policy. The frequency of conflicts between fast and
slow moving users depends on the number of users, the width of the
facility and the relative speed difference between users. There are
already dangerous conditions between cyclists and pedestrians on 3
heavily used bridge MUP's in NYC: Brooklyn; Queensboro; and George
Washington. Adding legally sanctioned e bikes going at twice the
bicycle speed to this mix would be catastrophic. I'd suggest that e
bike speeds be limited to 15 mph, when using pedistrian/pedal cycle
MUP's.

They should be banned from MUPs entirely! My experiences seem to show
that the riders of those bikes won't slow down for others and the
sight-lines on many MUPs are terrible. Ebikes and MUPs are accidents
waiting to happen.

So it is in Massachusetts. Not that I'm suggesting that state be
nominated bellwether.

Singapore, some time ago, enacted laws for e-bikes. For example,

Riding power-assisted bicycle on footpaths $1,000 fine / 3 month
jail term / both

Speeding (10km/h on footpaths or 25km/h on shared paths and cycling
paths) $1,000 fine / 3 months\u2019 jail / both

Using non-compliant devices (20kg weight, 70cm wide, or 25km/h
speed) $5,000 fine / 3 month jail term / both

And as of 1 July 2019, it is an offence to ride an unregistered
e-scooter on public paths. Power-assisted bicycles (PABs) must be
sealed with the LTA approval seal, registered and affixed with a
registration plate.

Apparently e-bikes became very [popular in Singapore and as one guy
wrote: The number of mishaps caused by PMDs has been rising in
Singapore. Can't be that bad, you think. But the numbers are legit
shocking, 3 PMD-related accidents a week occur on public roads and
paths. A friend working in one of the public hospitals complains that
A&E is always filled with e-bike and e-scooter-related cases these
days.

Note that Singapore has always tended toward draconian laws and
punishments but by the same token they do, for example, have the least
narcotic problems of any city in the world.
--

Cheers,

John B.