[Johnny555]

Because many electric "bicycles" are throttle controlled and are essentially electric motorcyles and they should be regulated as such. The "pedal assist" ones aren't so bad, but some of the more powerful ones with unrestricted motors can go 40+ mph.

Even the pedal assist ones can be a hazard by giving a rider false confidence or letting him ride faster than his capabilities. It takes a pretty experienced bike rider to sustain 25+ mph, but with electric assist, a lot more people can go that fast or faster for long periods without having developed the skills to do so safely.

[margalabargala]

Unsure where you are, but in most of the US ebikes that can go over 28mph are not ebikes. They are electric motorcycles, and must be registered as such.

You're not mad at ebikes, you're mad at people with unregistered vehicles, and potentially drivers driving motorcycles without motorcycle licenses.

[Johnny555]

>You're not mad at ebikes, you're mad at people with unregistered vehicles, and potentially drivers driving motorcycles without motorcycle licenses.

Yeah, but the problem is that they all look the same, many legal bikes even come with easily removed speed limiters.

I'm ok with throwing the baby out with the bathwater -- regulate them all if it's impossible to tell which one is which until they get into an accident.

[margalabargala]

IMO this can be solved with education and enforcement in equal measure.

This is not the first example of there being an easily-abused commons of some sort, where we all benefit from using something within reason but a few bad actors can make things radically worse for everyone.

Radio comes to mind. It's very easy for anyone to prevent their neighbors from using their wifi, by trying to boost their own signal strength beyond legal limits.

But people don't, despite the equally easily removed power limiters. Because the FCC will come down hard on them.

Let's add more enforcement. Speed cameras everywhere, for cars and bicycles.

[Johnny555]

>Speed cameras everywhere, for cars and bicycles.

How do speed cameras help stop speeding bikes when they don't require a license plate?

[margalabargala]

I would support legislation requiring license plates on electric bicycles, if it came alongside legislation that would make cyclists radically safer from cars, such as ubiquitous speed cameras.

[stubish]

Over here, if the engine works without pedaling or when traveling over 25km/h, it is a motorcycle, and can't even use bike lanes. But I've heard of that being enforced and the food delivery industry seems to have become dependent on them.