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this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2023
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Bicycles
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This is a great idea. I live in a small town in California and there are always tweens going 40 miles per hour on their ebikes, usually with no protective gear and at least one passenger. They're a menace both to pedestrians and to themselves.
These kind of bastards is what gives us fellow ebike enjoyers a bad rep. Now I'm not saying "we aren't all like that", however, isn't it the whole point? Like I mean there are enough of these menaces to warrant some sort of prohibition. But then isn't it also a kind of diversion from the main topic of corrupt city planning and availability of proper bike lanes? I mean sure go ahead and blame it on the end user, not the provider.
In the UK, in the cities, most of the ebikes I see are illegal and are ridden by said bastards. I would happily get a licence for an ebike to reduce the number of dickheads giving me a bad name. I would prefer that the bikes have to be registered with a government ID so that the owner can be traced and that there are repercussions for breaking the law.
I’m fine with ebike enjoyers. Just like car enjoyers, though, they have a certain degree of danger which could (and should) be mitigated with licensure. I don’t see the downside to ensuring competence on what ultimately are dangerous vehicles.
Let's make runners get a license too... Studies have been done to show removing barriers for alternative transit increase participation. Stuff like this just lead to profiling from police, and less people riding. Maybe if someone can show me a study of these being a serious harm and not pearl clutching I might take this more seriously.
Certainly, here you go:
So 53 deaths in the US? Pretty low. Especially compared to the 685k deaths caused by heart disease.
What in the world does heart disease have to do with this?
If we can save some of those people with the rather simple and easy step of licensure, shouldn’t we? Like what’s the downside when there are lives on the line?
Basically it’s the same argument as driver’s licenses. Are you opposed to requiring training and certification to operate a car?
This is a barrier of entry. Studies have shown that this would result in less participation, that's the issue.
That’s okay though. I would prefer people use regular non-ebike bicycles anyway, which are safer and healthier alternatives for everyone. So kinda win/win.
I'd rather we do whatever we can to get people out of cars. And ebikes might be stepping stones to road bikes. Adding more barriers does nothing more then reenforce a car centric lifestyle.
It’s a shame that people (in my experience, angry “nice guys”) have undermined the phrase “we’re not all like that”. Sometimes, it’s a relevant, important distinction to point out, not an attempt to delegitimize the conversation.