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> Why would you ride a 40km/hr eBike on a deserted highway with 150km between towns when you could ride a 100km/hr+ electric motorcycle? Because I want to? Rid

> Why would you ride a 40km/hr eBike on a deserted highway with 150km between towns when you could ride a 100km/hr+ electric motorcycle? Because I want to? Riding an ebike is a very different experience to riding a motorcycle (I have my motorcycle license and have owned a motorcycle in the past). You see more of the land, but sometimes you want to go a bit faster than 25km/h without going 100km/h. This is sort of like demanding someone justify their use of a car since we have public transit. Besides, the law shouldn't be based on "why would you?", it should be based on solid safety arguments. I can see the validity of those within cities, but not so much in more rural areas.

Johnny555 10y ago
The law isn't there based on "why would you?" it's there based on "Is it safe to..." You have a very specific use case, if you can buy a bike that goes 40km/hr on a deserted road, you'll also be able to use that same 40km/hr bike on crowded urban bike paths. If you want a vehicle that goes faster than a bike, there are plenty of options. The faster vehicles abide by more stringent safety standards and have restrictions on where they can ride (i.e. you can't ride a motorcycle on a bike path, but depending on where you are, you might be able to ride a speed restricted moped there).
- throwaway7767 10y ago
  > You have a very specific use case, if you can buy a bike that goes 40km/hr on a deserted road, you'll also be able to use that same 40km/hr bike on crowded urban bike paths. Right, just like people who buy Teslas that can go 200+km/h can take those cars to the residential street with 15km/h limit and children playing in the street. We make laws that apply to the operator of the vehicle, instead of deciding a maximum safe speed for cars of 15km/h and applying a limiter to every car's engine. That's my whole point - the law should apply to how the engine is used, same as most every other class of vehicle out there.
Freak_NL 10y ago
In a lot of countries any motorised vehicle moving in excess of a certain speed is subject to certain safety requirements (such as a helmet or an enclosure, insurance, and a driver's licence). If you take a bicycle, add a powerful engine, and ride it at 40km/h, then legally speaking you don't have an e-bike; you have a moped or whatever the relevant category is called in the local jurisdiction. To prevent everyone buying e-bikes from having to deal with safety requirements that are not deemed relevant below 25km/h, the lawmaker's have decided to limit this class of vehicle to those speeds.

Johnny555 10y ago

The law isn't there based on "why would you?" it's there based on "Is it safe to..." You have a very specific use case, if you can buy a bike that goes 40km/hr on a deserted road, you'll also be able to use that same 40km/hr bike on crowded urban bike paths. If you want a vehicle that goes faster than a bike, there are plenty of options. The faster vehicles abide by more stringent safety standards and have restrictions on where they can ride (i.e. you can't ride a motorcycle on a bike path, but depending on where you are, you might be able to ride a speed restricted moped there).

throwaway7767 10y ago
> You have a very specific use case, if you can buy a bike that goes 40km/hr on a deserted road, you'll also be able to use that same 40km/hr bike on crowded urban bike paths. Right, just like people who buy Teslas that can go 200+km/h can take those cars to the residential street with 15km/h limit and children playing in the street. We make laws that apply to the operator of the vehicle, instead of deciding a maximum safe speed for cars of 15km/h and applying a limiter to every car's engine. That's my whole point - the law should apply to how the engine is used, same as most every other class of vehicle out there.

Freak_NL 10y ago

In a lot of countries any motorised vehicle moving in excess of a certain speed is subject to certain safety requirements (such as a helmet or an enclosure, insurance, and a driver's licence). If you take a bicycle, add a powerful engine, and ride it at 40km/h, then legally speaking you don't have an e-bike; you have a moped or whatever the relevant category is called in the local jurisdiction. To prevent everyone buying e-bikes from having to deal with safety requirements that are not deemed relevant below 25km/h, the lawmaker's have decided to limit this class of vehicle to those speeds.