ebike4healthandfitness said:
Should that restriction be removed?
Just think in terms of physics.
A car is possibly 3,000 lbs... trucks can be 15,000 lbs or more.
When these vehicles hit something there is massive momentum involved.
A bicycle or ebike is going to run about 200 lbs for the rider and maybe 75 lbs maximum for the ebike. (100 lbs for a moped)
So from the danger standpoint it's hard to make a "Natural Law" argument that sounds legitimate.
Natural Law is supposed to be the basis of ALL law as it's what the Constitution was built upon.
The singular "Wrong" is to do material harm to another innocent human being.
And then our "Rights" are nearly infinite because anything that does no harm is a "Right".
But I think what really happens is people have become Dumbed Down over the last century and no longer understand basic things about how a civilized society functions so the laws are now being created by people with no clue of what limits are supposed to exist on them.
Each new law makes life more strict and that means less free.
So there is this "big picture" problem of vast deviation from concepts of basic "Rights" which are corrupting the laws to the point of absolute tyranny.
Because "Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely".
But the Fabian Socialism Dumb and Dumber process was done slowly so we sort of wake up now in an increasing nightmare.
It would not surprise me if eventually they demand smartphone tracking apps to monitor bike safety.
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However....
The problem with the bike lanes where pedal bikes interact with ebikes and mopeds is the speed differences.
When a moped traveling at 28 mph approaches a bicyclist going 18 mph that moped now must swerve out of the bike lane and into the car and truck lane to get past.
Now you have true danger because two bikes crashing into each other might cause some scratches, but if a car or truck hits a cyclist that's potentially fatal.
So I think it really is better that Class 3 ebikes and mopeds leave the bike lanes to pedal bikes.
At least that argument has a justification based in actual physics.
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The ebike and moped ideally need the speed necessary to stay up with traffic flow.
Since these machines are set to a top speed of 28 mph or 30 mph this means they can travel easily in a street marked as 25 mph but are going to get swallowed up at the 35 mph limit.
It's a problem.