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This makes no sense. A cyclist with a decent road bike can easily go faster than that.
I can go faster than that on the clapped out bike I bought when I was still in school. And I'm 45.
In the UK e-Bikes are limited to 15mph (in that the motor cuts out above that, so you can pedal faster if you want), and frankly that's fast enough. Plenty of idiots can't handle even that, and of course they don't use helmets either because fuck having your brain inside your skull, right?
It also depends on your definition of e-Bike, because I've also seen it applied to what are basically motorbikes with an electric engine. I think that sort of thing should require a license and test to be allowed to ride in public.
When I was younger and in better shape my average speed was 35-40kmh (about 20-25mph).
15mph seems frustratingly and uncomfortably slow. But then again, I’m not terribly familiar with e-bikes. I know that some only help you pedal and others are basically motorcycles, so lumping them all together doesn’t make sense.
Good idea - if you also cap car speeds at 15mph
The state of traffic already does that...
16mph is the limitation in germany. If your bike is faster, you have to register it an pay tax, and cant use dedicated bicycle infratructure anymore.
16mph is exactly the speed where I'm fast enough but dont feel like I would die in a crash.
Everything above would require protective clothing like on motorcycles Imo, and that kind of defeats the purpose for ebikes for me. I want to ride my bike but don't want to have to fight against wind and going up the hill.
If an ebike is as fast as a motorcycle, it should get treated as one.
Yeah this proposal is reasonable. I wouldnt want to share my bikepath with old people driving more than 25kmh. They just dont have the reaction time to safely drive at speeds like that and even that is actually waaay to fast for the oldest. If you wanna go faster, use your muscles and/or drive on the road.
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16mph is the limitation in germany.
In my experience, a typical bike-friendly city in Germany will have 30 km/h limit for cars anyway (18 mph). NYC "official" speed limit is 25mph.
Yeah but blinking bike lights are also illegal to sell in Germany because you realized that drunk drivers target fixate on them and you apparently found that ban to be a better solution than aggressively cracking down on drunks. So I don't give much credence to the rational integrity of German vehicular law. I go faster than 16 MPH literally every time I get on my bike. A regular non-motorized bike, powered only by me.
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15 mph speed limit on roads? That is genuinely the dumbest thing I have read in forever. 15 on mixed use paths is still a kind of low limit, but why on earth should ebikes have a different speed limit on shared roads? Am I supposed to brake down every slight incline next time I visit NYC?
Classic legislating the out group from the in group. The idea that the justification in the text is that "ebikes are heavier than normal bikes [so less dangerous]" while at the same time having a higher speed limit for 2 ton pedestrian killers is insane.
because they want people purchasing or renting vehicles, and paying for public transportation.
ebikes and regular bikes undercut city profits and private industries invested in new yorks current infrastructure.
making it difficult, pointless, or seemingly "unsafe and scary" is just another way for them to squeeze the already dry working man for a few more drops.
they want continuous subscribers, not "freeloadin communist lbrl sissies"
I don't think there's some nefarious "they" cabal here, certainly not an organized one trying to discourage biking. Occam's Razor is there are a few different types of people supporting this. Chief among them are just carbrained people who can't fathom biking for transportation, who don't realize how slow that is when they've only toodled on a 35 pound mountainbike recreationally at 10 mph. Then you've also got people who have almost been hit by a delivery scooter thinking "ebikes are a menace" solely because they're new and something some "other" group of people uses, and so it's easy to say "they must be stopped" while ignoring the crazy fast, way heavier cars they're already desensitized to.
Then you've also got people who have almost been hit by a delivery scooter thinking "ebikes are a menace" solely because they're new and something some "other" group of people uses, and so it's easy to say "they must be stopped" while ignoring the crazy fast, way heavier cars they're already desensitized to.
i wonder who invested in the consistent motor vehicle marketing and infrastructure over the last 100 years?
surely not the rich and powerful behind the status quo of american car manufacturing.
that would be insane to think they were somehow involved in maintaining the status quo through bribery and lobbying in one of the most populated and popular cities on earth.
unheard of in the united states! surely new yorks very uncorrupt mayor is above such lowely criminal behaviours.
it would make zero sense for someone to make such a silly law for an ecofriendly and virtually free alternative (after a small initial investment in comparison) that existed well before motor vehicles ever did.
occams razor applies, for sure. this is america afterall.
you're probably right, theres nothing to see here. surely the mayor of new york city couldnt possibly be in a position to profit from such a law. that would be INSANE
Canuck here. The city I live in only caps ebike speeds on the pathways at 20km/hr (Personally I only see riders going this fast when there's no one else in sight. When they approach others on the pathways they slow right down. Most also slow right down when going around blind corners or bends). You can ride them on sidewalks but must have peddle assist disabled. When riding on the roads you must follow the rules of the road.
Could be an option for NYC. But limiting ONLY ebike speed on roads is not cool. Why should they be forced to go slower when big death traps can go flying past them??
This feels like it's purposefully designed to kneecap the adoption of e-bikes by rendering all class 1 and 2 e-bikes illegal and making it harder/more expensive to buy new ones because they have to have bespoke detuning for the NYC market.
IMO, it should be 20mph, but it's a software limit. It's nothing to "tune" it.
If you want to go faster, get a motorcycle license. The higher end ebikes are getting ridiculous. Their frames, tires, and brakes are not designed for the power and speed they can put down.
IMO, it should be 20mph, but it’s a software limit. It’s nothing to “tune” it.
You're talking about vehicles that typically aren't open source and don't have a firmware update mechanism. There is no reason to expect they're even possible to change without swapping out the entire controller.
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Did you read the bill? This is a road speed limit, not a mandated governor for the motor. It's still super dumb, but it shouldn't do anything to class 1, 2, or 3 sales.
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Step 1: Limit e-bike speed
Step 2: Enforce minimum speed limit
Step 3: Profit
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Why not just add speed limits to areas where higher speeds are an issue? That's been the approach to cars -- no car is limited to 140 kmh despite speeds above that are illegal pretty much everywhere...
Regular bikes can easily go above 15 mph as well, so why should this only affect e-bikes?
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= 24 kilometers/hr for those also wondering
Just build more and bigger sidewalks. In shenzhen and beijing, they often have 2 separated bike/moped lanes on either side of the road, a bike/scooter parking lane, and then like 20 feet of sidewalk you can also ride your electric moped on.
Take one or two of the traffic lanes to cover it. They have enough.
They've already done this. Side walks have been widened bus stops have extentions into the road lanes have been removed for bike lanes and other lanes have been removed for bus lanes. Major Manhattan roadways like 2nd ave have been pushed from 4 - 5 lanes to 2 - 3 depending on the area
That sounds pretty fair to me. Very few regular bikers go faster than 20-25. Especially with more weight, like delivery or cargo bikes, and also especially with the e-motor support there is a lot of weight and power behind those bikes.
And bike lines are usually built for "regular" use, not high speed. All the curves, break distances etc. get planned with around that speed and not a whole lot more.
The original purpose of supporting disabled people who can't use a regular bike is still served and people don't have to be afraid of maniacs going 50mph in places where "common sense" would already advise them not to. If you're using a cargo bike, that also still works and you get not so gently instructed to watch the speed with your cargo.
Maybe they could do something where to use a bike lane, it has to be speed capped. Idk.
very few[not none] regular bikers go faster than 20-25
Therefore
limit electric to 15
Uh
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Is this for sidewalk or road? Road speed limit should be same as cars. On the road I try to go faster to be safer. If there are good bike paths, whatever the non-e-bike speed limit is, e-bike same. I don't think bikes belong on the sidewalk in NYC, but here when I am on a sidewalk I think about 17mph is the top speed so yeah 15 seems reasonable.
This is not for sidewalk use, this is for road use. NYC has forbidden vehicles on sidewalks for a long time.
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This seems like a "why not both" situation. Limit e-bike speeds to those that are typical in most parts of the world and reduce city speed limits for cars to 20mph, and enforce it aggressively.
Because they’re not doing both, which will encourage people to switch from e-bikes back to cars. This rule will make NYC streets more dangerous, no doubt.
No limit for bikes without limits for cars.
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Love it here on /c/fuckbikes
This thread is full of people who have never been to NYC and think this cap is somehow a good idea and not a death sentence both figuratively for micromobility and literally for e-bikers who have to deal with much faster car traffic.
It's not even about nyc. Haven't been there in a while myself.
Its about car brains who see cars as entitled and everything else as the enemy. The mods really need to get bulk bans going.
I'm a former moderator of /r/nycbike on reddit and I can attest, a lot of cyclists hate ebikers because instead of seeing an ally against car culture they just see one more "other" with whom they have to compete for limited bike infrastructure space, who they feel goes too fast in those spaces, and they think isn't enforced against enough. I hate to say it but just like most groups of people, a lot of cyclists aren't able to step back and appreciate a shared struggle. They don't realize that they're doing the exact same thing to ebikers that car drivers do to them. They don't realize that the limited space they're fighting over is an arbitrary restriction. They don't realize how legislating against ebikes is just a wedge, the tip of which is destined to cut them too once driven too far. So while I'm sure a lot of the detractors in this thread are legitimate car brains, I wouldn't be surprised if just as many if not more of them are subscriber cyclists who maybe need a reality check.
That attitude is crazy prevalent. I ride an ebike in DC, and after passing a guy on his acoustic bike, he caught up to me to bikeshame me for riding "a motorcycle", and complained how he almost gets run over by ebikes every day (I was nowhere near him, I think he thought he was being funny). Ok, sure dude. I'm sure it's ebikers almost run over you every day, not the thousands of distracted drivers.
The worst part is the dude ran two stop signs to catch up to me, while wearing no helmet. I've never seen such a clear posengeur who couldn't deal with being passed. I am not your safety problem, bro.
complained how he almost gets run over by ebikes every day
Which is to say, he's never been harmed by an ebike in his life. Notice how his anecdote perfectly mirrors stories from pedestrians about the number of times they've "almost been hit by cyclists" while meanwhile they've literally never been hit by a bike and are much more likely to get hit by a car. No perspective. No self-crit.
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Limiting e-bike speeds is a great idea in NYC given how frequently they are used on sidewalks and pedestrian walkways on bridges.
Okay so where are the hardware caps on car speed, given that they are used around pedestrian crossings, and several orders of magnitude more lethal?
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They are illegal on pedestrian walkways. All vehicles are illegal on pedestrian walkways and that is not a new rule. Just enforce the existing rules and let them keep going street speed on the streets.
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this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2025
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