Originally Posted by
wilfried
Honestly, all this nay saying and hand wringing over ebikes sounds a bit like the histrionic bikelash right before Citi Bike hit the streets.
I think that's a bit of a mischaracterized as pearl-clutching. This isn't before the e-bikes hit the street, it is based on actual encounters and observations out on the street. My initial response was right after someone on one almost crashed into me. I can say "almost" because I have the skill and experience and I avoided him. Sure, some people are perfectly fine on them, but some people are not. I know some 12 year olds who could drive perfectly well, but I'm not advocating for all 12 year olds to have access to cars.
Yes, some Citi Bikers are inexperienced, and I admit that they sometimes annoy me. But I dare say, most are perfectly competent riders using bike share to go about their business
It sounds like you've never been hit by one. Once you have, you'll wish that the inexperienced ones couldn't exceed 10-12mph. If the woman who hit me on her conventional Citibike had been on an e-version going 18mph, my rim would be toast and I'd have some scars to show. It's also a lot easier to react and compensate for erratic behavior from some one ride at 10mph than someone riding at 18mph. Btw, I keep quoting 18mph because I paved one the other day and that was their sustained max speed.
we just pay attention to the annoying ones
Of course there are plenty of good riders on Citibikes. I've been a proponent of the program since day one and have used them frequently since their launch. I'm talking about the annoying ones, I'm taking about the ones who ride recklessly.
Now that bikes share has been around for a bunch of years, a lot of those noobs have become seasoned commuters, and they didn't die or kill people in droves learning to ride in traffic. Ebikes do take a bit of getting used to.
Overall, Citibike has been great for biking in the city, propelled the improvements in infrastructure, and increased overall ridership, BUT I don't really want to be a casualty of some learning curve. I could deal with them if there was 12mph limiter on them to keep those afore mentioned noobs from becoming a menace. If you want to go faster, pick up a conventional one.
As to Zacster's point, any experienced rider on a road bike could go faster than an e-Citibike, but that experience also tells you (hopefully) when you need to slow down for congestion, crosswalks, etc.
A final note to all this: Motiva had initially proposed introducing e-bikes into the system as a solution to the L shutdown to help people ride over the bridge. The implication was that these bikes would be tied to the East River crossings, but that seems to have fallen by the wayside.