The move is in response to many young electric bike riders who often take to the streets without having tested for or received a typical driver’s license for a standard car. That means they are often ignorant of many traffic laws and safety information.
Assembly Bill 530, which will soon enter committee, would require both an online written test and a state-issued identification for riders who do not have a driver’s license. The bill would also ban riders under 12 years old from riding e-bikes.
If I gotta pay for license and registration, I expect those funds to be put towards bike infrastructure.
I’m surprised there’s no pushback here about this. Cars are by far the most dangerous vehicles on the road, far more so that e-bikes. As such, anything that makes it harder for people to use alternatives is going to make our roads less safe.
Once we’ve solved the car problem, I would support this, but we’re comically far from that in California.
theres a push for e-bike registration, insurance and liscensing where I live, but theres an important distinction between e-assist bicycles and this other type that you dont even pedal and can do 35-40kmph. e-assist wont need to be registered etc, where as these borderline electric motorcycles will
I agree with that but the article made no such distinction. If it’s a blanket law I will oppose it. Most e-bikes aren’t really much more dangerous than ordinary bicycles.
agreed- not to others anyway. I have a regular road bike and an e-assist and the sheer speed of the e-assist makes it waaaay scarier than my cannondale hybrid. I wear a helmet when I’m riding my e-bike and typically dont bother when I’m on the normal bicycle. the damage I could do by t-boning a car on either one is about the same (maybe a scratch of the paint and a dent in a panel)
You should wear a helmet in both cases… Flipping over at 10mph can splatter your noggin too
I know, I’ve just fallen off of my normal bike dozens of times and its, ya know, its not like brain splattering, its more like rolling on the wet pavement and being embarassed
People are notoriously bad at statistics. Just because every spill from your regular bike hasn’t risked your head so far doesn’t mean the next one won’t, too. The odds may be low, but there’s no guarantee the next spill will be one where your head is okay.
Depends on what kind of bike is in question. There’s a difference between pedal assisted ebikes and electric motorbikes. I feel like it’s more than appropriate to require a licence and insurance for a bike that goes over 20mph and doesn’t need pedaling.
They gonna pair that with more bike infrastructure? Or are they leaving the onus on the bike riders to watch out for themselves when dealing with cars. I mean, safety is the concern, right?
So I’ve been riding both for over a decade. And this kind of cracks me up for several reasons. 1. I can in fact travel faster on my road bike then my electric bike. The components add more weight. 2. There is already a law limiting the top speed of the assist system to 20/25 mph. So to think you have these cruising at 40mph is crazy. And for reference, I have hit this speed and it’s terrifying on most bikes. 3. Studies have shown that imposing restrictions like this simple decrease participation which in turn adds to sedimentary behavior which is a lot worse for you in the end. 4. This reminds me of the same nonsense as a representative that tried to create a seat belt law for motorcycles…
All good information.
I laughed at
sedimentary behavior
I too try not to settle down at the bottom of lakes and rivers…
That sir, is a fair critique. Sedentary :(
Nice and quiet down there though.
We need a metamorphic society.
Gneiss points overall.
Studies have shown that imposing restrictions like this simple decrease participation which in turn adds to sedimentary behavior which is a lot worse for you in the end.
I wonder if that’s the idea. Nip e-bikes in the bud before they become a serious competitor to cars.
- Studies have shown that imposing restrictions like this decrease participation
This is also a big problem since cycling is a lot safer when there are more people cycling
I feel like this would be better handled in PE class. Just teach kids to ride bikes and the laws surrounding bikes on the road.
The state identification requirement is going to be abused as fuck by the police.
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.
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:
While reliable numbers are elusive, the pattern isn’t. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), estimated emergency department visits due to micromobility products (e-bikes, e-scooters and hoverboards) more than doubled from 2017 to 2021. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), meanwhile, counted 53 deaths from e-bike accidents from that same period and it decried the “lack of complete, consistent and reliable data” that likely leads to vast underestimations of the actual statistics. The NTSB’s report noted that “fatalities associated with e-bike ridership have also increased exponentially.”
Data from other countries are concerning, too: in the Netherlands, e-bikes were responsible for 27% of all fatal bicycle accidents in 2017; in Israel, electric-powered bikes and scooters accounted for 3,686 hospital admissions between 2014 and 2019; and a Dutch study found that e-bike riders were 1.6 times more likely to wind up in the emergency department than riders of regular bikes.
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?
