Originally Posted by
dabac
Part of that is like the old and tired argument about guns. The thing itself doesn’t become a threat until handled with poor judgement and/or malicious intent.
And for cars we’re all used to share the road with other similarly sized cars that can have 2-3 times as much HP. And again, that capacity for mayhem and chaos usually doesn’t cause a problem until combined with poor judgement and/or malicious intent.
So it’s no way guaranteed that seriously overpowered ebikes have to become a significant problem.
But yeah, I understand your concern.
It seems to be a surprisingly widespread notion that electric propulsion and calling something a ”bicycle” somehow makes it ”safe” to faff about any old how. Ignore legal classifications, ride anything, anywhere etc etc. However,
AFAIK, this casual attitude hasn’t as yet caused any serious accidents.
50 mph is far too fast to be classed as an e-bike. It is a motorcycle or a moped. Intent has nothing to do with it, and there's no resemblance to guns. The definitions are spelled out in the law, and are based on objective facts about the vehicles. For example,Virginia Code section 46.2-100 defines a moped as a vehicle that:
- travels on three wheels or less,
- a seat that is no less than 24 inches in height, measured from the ground to the middle of the seat, and
- has a gasoline, electric, or hybrid motor that displaces less than 50 cubic centimeters (or 50cc).