The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition weighed in with a pointed response, arguing that the state should be making it easier, not harder, to own and use e-bikes. Their senior organizer echoed the sentiment shared by many riders: the real confusion and danger comes from people not being able to tell the difference between a legal e-bike and an electric moped, not from the bikes themselves.
Brett Thurber, co-owner of a San Francisco e-bike shop, raised a practical industry concern about AB 1557. Restricting California’s speed limits below what manufacturers currently build for the U.S. market could push companies to skip California customers entirely, shrinking the supply available to local shops and consumers.
Maybe I’m in the minority here, but I think that e-bikes should be speed-limited when operating under power. They’re motor vehicles, even if the motor is electric and the vehicle is a bike frame.
Anything going above 20mph has no business being in a bike lane.
I’ve clocked 40 mph coming down a mountain with just gravity and my leg power.
But that’s why bike lanes don’t make sense. We need space for passing.
I’ve got good news for you. That’s already the case. E bikes already have a class system: I, II, and III. Class I is only allowed 20mph with pedal assest. Class II is allowed 20mph with pedal assist or a throttle. Class III is allowed 20mph with throttle and 28mph with pedal assist. Typically in America only up to Class II is allowed on bike paths. Anything beyond those capabilities is treated like a dirt bike/motorcycle; it’s only supposed to ridden off road or plated to ride on the road.
The problem is this is dang near impossible to enforce. How many police are on the bike paths? How many people know these regulations?
yeah; I think the current system is overall pretty reasonable. the issue is really enforcement
And other countries don’t use that class system either. UK to ride as an ebike needs to be 15mph pedal assist only and motor can’t be over 250w. Anything else would be considered a motorcycle and require registration and insurance, also can’t use bike lanes.
Not sure if there are many electric bikes with pedals that are sold as motorcycles.
That’s really low speed. That feels like over reach, but that’s from my American perspective I suppose.
It’s likely a very slight underestimate. The EN-15194 standard comes out of the EU but has basically become the international standard definition of “safe, legal, ebike”. It requires the motor to cut out at 25 km/h and have no more than 250 W.
It’s about the speed that someone pottering about on a Dutch style bike is probably going, though it’s quite slow for a road bike. The 250 W limit is the bigger problem. It’s fine in the Netherlands, but for people in hillier countries it makes e-cargo bikes rather inaccessible.
That’s 15.5mph, not far off. That makes the ebike barely worth it.
Eh, I wouldn’t go that far. As advocates very often say: ebikes aren’t for making you go faster, they’re for helping you go further. And the evidence bears that out: ebike riders do tend to ride further than regular bike riders do. They go about as fast as a casual cyclist usually will on the flat, and much faster up hills. It’s not about speed, it’s about convenience.
That said, I have advocated here in Queensland for increasing it from 25 to 32 km/h in the past, to bring it in line with America’s 20 mph. And more recently I used my submission to a parliamentary inquiry to suggest a 35 km/h limit for users with a licence (the context here being that the government is proposing a law which will restrict ebikes to 10 km/h on footpaths and shared paths—which make up over 90% of the things called “bike paths” in my city—as well as requiring a licence for all ebikes, even EN-15194 25 km/h ones). As a stronger cyclist, when on flat ground I tend to average about 30 km/h and can go above that for reasonable periods of time, and I don’t think it would be a safety risk for responsible adults to go just a hair faster than that.
But I really do want to emphasise that speed is not the primary advantage of an ebike, and it shouldn’t be seen as if it is.
You don’t live in the mountains, I presume?
The ebike benefit isn’t for going faster. It’s great for helping to climb mountains. 15.5 mph is FANTASTIC compared to walking up and pushing a bike
Which is why I use a regular bike, save on weight compared to hauling a useless motor and battery.
Ablest comment.
No it isn’t. I am talking about my personal choice and reasoning behind it. Stop looking to be offended.
If I am going over 15mph the motor and battery are a completely dead weight to comply with (stupid) UK laws. Even if you have a cargo bike going up hill it’s only allowed to be 250w too.
I’m used to them being limited to 25 kph (~15.5 mph) the high speed ones are considered mopeds with all their rules