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Lemmy when offline driver monitoring to prevent dui and falling asleep, texting: 🤬🤬
Lemmy when requiring license and registration just to ride a bicycle: 🤭
It's more nuanced than just "regulation bad and I want my freedom." With the war in Iran destroying the world's energy economy, people will be forced to use cheaper modes of transportation. And when there aren't any buses/trains, E-bikes are a good solution. The problem will be that too many people will be pushed into it and some people are just retarded. There will be reckless people and there will be those that can barely operate the vehicle. I think it's worth considering some form of regulations knowing that they're may be an E-bike boom in the coming years (or maybe even months).
Some of these comments read like FBI boot licker plants
Too many.
"I want the government to limit my property for the state's benefit" is such a lib take. Oh and before anyone says its for "public safety" you're chugging state propaganda. If it was for public safety then they would get rid of right hand turns on red but we're not here to talk about that.
get rid of right hand turns on red
I've been driving in California for 30 years, and have never once considered right on reds a safety issue. At intersections where visibility is limited, they do prevent the turn on red.
I, like you, am uncomfortable with the license plate as a solution to the "something faster than an e-bike" problem. I don't think that's the solution. But it is a problem, and we should explore all possible solutions.
[Analog] cyclist here. I'm of the opinion if it has a throttle, it needs some sort of registration and maybe even minimal insurance.
Class I (in the US), you don't need anyone's permission to ride. Just like a regular bicycle.
Class III, you need some sort of registration/license. Might as well be a motorcycle.
Class II is where we can have some discussion and disagreement.
California is spot on and if the e-bike is able to travel above 25 km/h it should be illegal to ride in the bicycle lane. Why the hell are kids riding an e-bike when they should be building endurance and muscles.
Too many people in here are perfectly fine with all movement outside of their home being ID'd, documented and monitored. A plate on a bike does absolutely nothing to make the road safer. It just normalizes the "safety" of constant surveillance by your benevolent overlords.
Put normal regulations on e bike performance and build bike safe infrastructure. "It would be too dangerous to chase them"... get on your own bike you fat lazy pig.
The number of children I see zooming around the neighborhood without helmets and not even stopping at stop signs (I legit almost hit one kid one time who blew through a stop sign in front of me), is pretty horrifying. Their parents have basically given them all small motorcycles and let them go free with no supervision. It just seems so unsafe.
Some vehicles that people call "ebikes" should absolutely be registered and plated. You should not be able to take a motorized vehicle on a bike path and zoom through at 50+ MPH. The surron kiddies are going to ruin alternative transportation for everyone. Sure, surrons aren't ebikes (and something like a super 76 which has pedals really should be regulated as part of its own category like emoped or something), but regulators are going to want to put everything in nice neat categories and ban everything else.
The issue here is that we have no way to verify from your text whether you almost hit them because of their lack of responsibility, or if you weren't paying enough attention.
As someone with extensive experience with bike commuting on a regular bike, I have had multiple near death experiences while obeying all traffic laws properly and using multiple light sources. Even with my new 10 minute walking commute, the simple act of crossing the street safely when the street lights tell me to cross, has proved to be asking too much with multiple near hits in only a few months.
Humans are not remotely responsible enough to drive.
Lol I was paying perfect attention. Only reason the kid was ok was that I was far enough back to slam on my breaks (and was going the speed limit). I doubt he even realized how risky the move he pulled was.
In all fairness, I've also nearly been hit by asshole pickup trucks blowing the same stop sign. Guess it might just be that intersection that makes people think it's optional.
Kids having independence is a good thing. They are probably the first in their family to be independent from cars and so their parents don’t teach them cycling etiquette.
Yes independence is a good thing. If they were riding normal bikes, I'd have few issues with them. However, the way things currently are, I see a decent number of dead or disabled children in the future.
Hell, I've had kids riding down the opposite lane of traffic riding wheelies and swerving around. Absolutely no accountability.
Not just children, but adults too! They're more likely to have a helmet on, but stop a stop sign? Nah, they don't have to stop, they are immune to traffic laws!
Not seems, is.
People are fucking stupid.
I've put 4000 miles on my e-bike in the past 2 years. Even though I follow traffic laws, I've seen far too much fuckery by other e-bike riders. I'm seeing children riding e-bikes and scooters, without helmets, doing crazy shit in the middle of the road almost cause accidents. I have narrowly avoided hitting such children on 3 separate occasions. I see plenty of adults on these things also not following traffic laws and riding these things on busy sidewalks.
I really do not want e-bikes to be regulated like cars. Being forced to register and carry insurance makes an inexpensive thing expensive. That being said, there are tons of dumb assholes out there that will ruin it for the rest of us.
Registering is fine, a lot of people voluntarily register their expensive bikes with local police that have those programs anyway.
Insurance is weirder. Cars require as much insurance as they do because they weigh multiple tons and can kill people and destroy infrastructure. A powered bike can do a lot of damage, especially if it rams someone, but it has an order of magnitude less destructive potential than a car. Especially for a limited powered bike insurance "should" be significantly cheaper.
Cause its stupid. Regulate the bikes so they perform like regular bikes and forget about it.
People don’t buy ebikes to go fast, they buy them to make hills easier.
This is a weird take.
Some people are definitely buying ebikes to go fast.
And a kind of stupid take. If the bike can go up hills easy it can go fast easy. The limits are all in software and there's abundant evidence that software limits are easily circumvented.
Tough. Go back to a regular bike. Around here the cops have been making them follow the driving laws for a few years. There are no state laws but other ways to get them to not be a danger.
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this post was submitted on 03 May 2026
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