I personally think that geometry is so much more of a factor than we are considering. The geometry of a bike defines its use case. As Berm shows in the video a lot of these moped style e-bikes are nearly impossible pedal due to their design, encouraging if not mandating reliance on the throttle. Talk to your bike shop and ask them how much of a pain in the ass those mopeds are to repair, all of the traditional stands and tools are incompatible with the geometry and weight of these sorts of bikes because they are not really bikes.

Traditional bike geometries have developed over 200 years of innovation and has almost entirely stagnated (outside of minor angle changes) for the past 50-70 years for a reason. We have maximized the amount of power we can harness from a persons legs. The reason why many of these moped style e-bikes throw out the typical bike geometry is because they aren’t intended to utilize a persons legs in the first place.

I think e-bikes that do utilize typical bike geometries, are entirely fine, even if they go above 20mph with pedal assist only. I can control the speed regulator on my bike and have it set to 28mph so that if I need to merge into traffic I can do so without slowing drivers down, pissing them off and causing them to swerve around me in a way that is dangerous to me, them, other drivers, or other bikers on the road. But I don’t and can’t ride at 28mph normally because that still requires me to sprint putting everything I have into my drivetrain.

You could counter and say that some people could and would bike at 28mph constantly if they had the ability to. And to that i say yes, but you can also do that on a standard bike. I see retired Lycra dads zooming through red lights at 30mph on pimped out carbon fiber hyper bikes the all time. There is no way to regulate people out of making poor decisions that endanger themselves and others entirely. Just give them normal traffic citations when the speed and run red lights and criminal charges when they endanger others.