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.
Bicycles without motors aren’t allowed on sidewalks already. No new laws are needed.
We just need police to say “get in the road!”
That would instantly kill 80+% of bicycling for transportation in North America. I literally couldn’t even leave my house on my bike, and the pathway I use every day specifically designed for bicycle access to capmus would be useless, at it only connects to sidewalks.
You walk on the sidewalks with your bicycle. Because sidewalks are for pedestrians.
A person walking a bicycle is a pedestrian
Where I am its perfectly legal as long as you yield to all pedestrians.
In Germany, bicycle lanes are ending often without a reason. Delivery drivers don’t really care and use the pedestrian space. If there were better designated lanes for bicycles, it would be a lot simpler to keep them separated from pedestrian space.