Then again, if a car with 200'000 Watts of power rolls through the same 30 km/h zone no one cares. So why should we care about bicycles?

While I don't think high-wattage e-bike motors are necessarily defensible, where you get mileage out of a higher wattage motor on an e-bike is when going uphill. These motors are already legally required to stop outputting at 25 km/h, and going 25 km/h uphill requires quite a lot of energy to do.

It's even harder with cars: Why are cars even allowed to go 240km/h? Yeah, there is the german autobahn, but there's no reason why a car which is registered in France should be able to go faster than the french max motorway speed limit. There is also no reason to allow cars to be able to go from 0 to 100 in x seconds. There is no use case for that, even if you try to merge into a motorway or overtake somewhere.

Totally agree with you. Would like to add that we should also limit the noise that cars and motorcycles make. Many places have noise regulations but they are rarely enforced

In the EU all new cars sold after June 2024 must now have Intelligent Speed Assist: https://road-safety-charter.ec.europa.eu/resources-knowledge/media-and-press/intelligent-speed-assistance-isa-set-become-mandatory-across

There's a requirement to electronically limit the speed of all new road vehicles sold in the EU since 2024. The only problem is the vast difference in highway speeds within the Schengen area.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e2/European_Speed_Limits.svg/1280px-European_Speed_Limits.svg.png

Not that I don't agree with you, but to be fair, cars do require a license, they have to be registered and reguraly checked, which is not the case for a bike. In my opinion the failure here is that those should not be allowed for sale as bikes. Those are motocycle in all but name.

It'll exist, but you'll need a motorcycle license to drive it, and it'll be only on the street.

We actually need to end the "gig worker" business model where they're racing around all day and reckless driving translates to more money.

There's a whole class of electric vehicles being held back by regulation.

Do you know that there is a reason for the regulations on light motorcycles, mopeds, mofas, Vespas, scooters and however you name them? It's the number of fatal traffic accidents. And yes, there are probably over two dozens of these motorized vehicle classes which originally started with the idea of an "bicycle with a bit of motor" such as mopeds and mofas.

There’s a whole class of electric vehicles being held back by regulation. We can slap electro motors on wheels and bicycles are not the only vehicles you can build with that tech. Many EU countries are e.g. banning throttles on eBikes, but why are we forcing all those delivery drivers to pedal the whole day?

Fine by me, just say them to obtain a driver's license and insurance for a scooter, since basicaly it is what they would drive. Or drop the need of the license for the scooters and light bike.

The point is that a ebike with a throttles is basically a scooter (or bike) and then it is a different things, with differnt rules.

There’s a whole class of electric vehicles being held back by regulation. We can slap electro motors on wheels and bicycles are not the only vehicles you can build with that tech. Many EU countries are e.g. banning throttles on eBikes, but why are we forcing all those delivery drivers to pedal the whole day? Just give them a gas throttle. For many eBikes uses it really doesn’t make sense to include the whole bicycle complexity of gears, chains, shifting and so on. Just give them a motor and a throttle.

Then they could simply buy a small bike, with all the attached rules, like driver's license and so on.

The point is that a ebike and a bike are two separated things that follow different rules.

Killing the eBike with additional rules, insurance, mandatory inspections and so on would be absolutely idiotic and a good business model for insurances, car companies and so on, so I’m really afraid that this could happen

Rules are imposed as consequences.

I have listened to this episode as well, it's good

Is there a text version available? I don't have all day.

Copenhagener here. People do use eBikes in Copenhagen, but I guess it depends on what you consider "very few". My guesstimate would be that around one in five bikes is electric. As to why not more bikes are electric, Copenhagen - and Denmark in general - is very flat, so eBikes are more so used for:

• long distances (say, people who live ~20 km from work but still want to bike there)
• cargo/passenger bikes
• letting people bike who otherwise wouldn't physically be able to

You can get a well-working used bike for very cheap. New e-bikes tend to be pricey, used e bikes are often still pricey or come with caveats.