“Don’t Let Fear Flatten Progress on E-Bikes”
Amy Thomson, Justin Hu-Nguyen, Claire Amable, and Warren Wells, writing at Streetsblog San Francisco:
This past January, New Jersey legislators swung a regulatory sledgehammer that threatens the future of sustainable transportation across the country, with State Bill S4834 classifying all e-bikes as motorcycles, a drastic move that would require licenses, registration, and insurance. By conflating legal e-bikes with electric dirt bikes falsely advertised as e-bikes (widely referred to as “e-motos” which are not street legal), this law broadly penalizes active mobility without offering any substantial changes that make it safer for pedestrians, cyclists, or drivers sharing the road. … The stakes are too high for us to get this wrong. E-bikes have the potential to make biking a mainstream mode of transportation, reducing our reliance on fossil fuels, and creating more livable, connected, and joyful neighborhoods. This future depends on sensible regulation that encourages, rather than punishes, those choosing to ride. We all want safe streets, and the Bay Area can lead, if we have the courage to choose progress over fear.
This article thoughtfully articulates the current backlash against e-motos, the conflation with legal e-bikes, and the danger to the latter. We need to be able to embrace e-bikes as true micro-mobility vehicles while getting control of kids riding e-motos dangerously.
Op-Ed: Don’t Let Fear Flatten Progress on E-Bikes - Streetsblog San Francisco
Advocates react to E-bike legislation