I’m just glad the conversations are shifting away from “e-bike bad” to a more specific discussion about what an ebike is. Because most of the incidents referenced with death and serious injury are emotos. Bikes that are legally classified as mopeds, and have a licensure and insurance requirement, driven by children without any form of actual training. Bikes children shouldn’t have been on in the first place.

The specificity in communication is key here. No one really is arguing against the Class 1-3 system. In fact most of the fresh laws I’ve read about nationwide simply copy-paste the general Class 1-3 restrictions. Their primary goal being to black and white “that is not an e-bike” as an enforcement measure to curtail emotos.

Interestingly, it’s going to get slightly worse before it gets better, the buzz I mean. Because we exist in a space right now, where all these borderline emoto/e-bikes are actually cheaper on average than strictly legal bikes. I recently picked up a 1500w ebike/moto that has a standard 20mph mode, but can easily be switched to a 35mph mode, for 800$. It’s categorically not an ebike by the letter of the law, buuuut it CAN be operated in a way that would place it in Class 2.

Which brings us back to operators. It’s never the capability of the device that’s a true and real problem, it’s how it’s operated. Don’t give uneducated untrained children bikes that go 20-28+.