this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2023
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I think E Bikes are amazing, but people don't seem to take their speed seriously enough in my area. Those things absolutely crank, and people seem to have no concept of their potential danger to themselves, pedestals or other motorists. Nearly 30 mph isn't a joke, and they seem to ride on the sidewalks here rather than the roads.
Well, in the US at least, the federal speed limit for an e-bike powered solely by its motor is 20mph, so to get past that would require at least some effort on the part of the rider - although I agree that’s still way too fast for sidewalks. I think maybe the first step then would be to improve the infrastructure for bike lanes; I use an e-bike to get to work when the weather is nice enough, and aside from that the single biggest deterrent to that is because several times I’ve almost been driven off the road by cars. Dedicated bike lanes with proper separation should reduce the amount of people biking on sidewalks, but of course there will always be someone doing things they aren’t supposed to.
It looks like Max assisted pedal speed is 28mph, which is freaking quick on a bike haha.
100% agree that bike lanes would be a great choice, though in my area I have no idea where they could build them! I'm in the most population dense county in FL, and traffic already sucks much of the time.
Be safe, people are morons so ride defensively!
It's a funny situation where normally you'd have to be quite fit and capable on a bike before reaching those speeds but now you can just start there instead of working up to it.
In my area at least, the ones most riding e-bikes are people who haven't biked in awhile and have lost fitness from when they last rode too. Now they're riding a heavier bike with a heavier body at speeds beyond even their previous skill level, and the brakes on these bikes aren't as beefy as they should be with this in mind either.