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by bdangubic 105 days ago
E-Bikes and E-scooters and bunch of other modes of transportation have been recent addition and not only are they allowed (specifically E-Bikes) but you don’t need a license, they do not have to be registered and some can haul serious ass
1 comments

The difference being that only one of those things routinely kills people.
E-bikes and e-scooters kill people daily, accidents on those things can mess people up and there are none of the safety mechanisms like crumple zones or seatbelts on a bike. If you search "e-bike deaths" you'll get hits.
Do they kill over a million people a year worldwide? How many orders of magnitude fewer people are killed by E-things?

OP's point was that if you invented something today that killed over a million people per year, it probably wouldn't be allowed, and I don't think that's really that controversial a statement.

> Do they kill over a million people a year worldwide? How many orders of magnitude fewer people are killed by E-things?

On a per meter basis I'd expect bikes to be much worse. I've had more injuries on bike than in car, and people can certainly kill themselves on a bike. The main reason they don't is because the bad bike riders usually have enough accidents that they stop getting on the things. Bikes in themselves would probably be borderline illegal to sell if they were invented today, they don't look safe at all. And E-things are less safe again than ordinary bikes.

> OP's point was that if you invented something today that killed over a million people per year, it probably wouldn't be allowed, and I don't think that's really that controversial a statement.

I'm not replying to OP. I agree with him on this one and note that the implication of that is e-bikes are probably on their way towards being banned or restricted.

when the first cars started rolling down the streets they weren’t killing millions of people either
Horse driven carriages also routinely killed people.

Humanity has always needed transport.