On Saturday, July 15, 2017 at 11:32:18 PM UTC-4, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 7/15/2017 11:21 PM, Sir Ridesalot wrote:
A number oftimes in the last couple of months I've noticed extremely dangerous riding by these newfangled electric scooter/bike riders. In our area these are NOT allowed on the park trails or multi-use paths yet many electric bike operators zoom along at quite a high speed compared to the average pedal powered bicycle rider. Add in the fact that these electric bikes are nearly silent and you have an increasingly hazaradous thing to try and avoid. what makes it really bad is that these things don't need to be licensed and it seems that most of the ones riding them have no idea what the rules of the road are for them and/or where they're allowedto ride them.

Be aware of these things lest one day they give you that run down feeling.

I wonder if eventually electric bikes and their rider will have to licensed?

I agree that these things are going to be yet another difficult
complication on our road systems.

The cycling industry is lobbying hard to get favorable legislation for
electric assist bikes. They seem to see this as a huge potential market,
and I think they're correct. (The upscale bike shop I visited
yesterday, in a big city, had the electric bikes on the prominent "right
inside the door" display.) These things will let lazy people look
athletic and "green" without sweating much.

But I can envision lots of low skill riders cranking along at about 20
mph, riding facing traffic, passing cyclists without warning, speeding
on MUPs, sliding out on turns, etc.

Of course, they'll also be a boon to experienced and competent cyclists
who are suffering the ravages of age. I have a couple friends like that
who are definitely interested.

We'll see how it works out. But I'm not entirely optimistic.


--
- Frank Krygowski

What has me concerned are the electric bikes/scooters that do NOT have pedals; in other words they're NOT electric assisted bicycles but electric motorized bikes. Too many times the people I see riding them have no idea whatthe traffic laws are, they ride them on prohibited paths, and they ride at a high rate of speed where there are extremely poor sight lines. In the park I rode through yesterday a guy on a purely electric scooter (2-wheeler) was bombing through even though there are many signs posted stating no motorized vehicles allowed. that means electric bikes too. This guy had no consideration that there might be little children around the next bend that he could not see yet the was going at a high rate of speed. It seems to me that it's only a matter of timet before one of these reckless e-bike (no pedals) riders seriously hurts someone or gets themselves injured severely or killed in traffic because they fail to follow the rules of the road or exhibit plain old common sense when riding.

Cheers