Post #2205236
2026-05-03 22:11 UTC
They're not the same as motorcycles though. They're *comparable* to motorcycles, but they are not quite the same. There's no reason to have a binary system. There is a class of bikes which are more than recreational e-bikes but less than full-on motorcycles. There needs to be a class of regulation in between bicycles and slow e-bikes (which should require no registration at all) and motorcycles (which require a special driving licence to operate).
The fact that we don't "speed cap" any other vehicles isn't a good argument for not limiting the speed of e-bikes. All arguments for why ordinary personal vehicles *shouldn't* have speed governors limiting them to, say, 160 km/h, basically boil down to "It makes me feel bad" or "I think it's fun to drive fast".
Replies (2)
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@RedWeasel@lemmy.world 2026-05-03 22:41
They already have limits to 28mph/45kmh for ebicycles. If they go above that then they should require a license. Illinois's Senate agreed on a bill that now needs considering in the house for ebikes that exceed that, requires registration, and additionally puts age limits on them. That seems reasonable. Changing the existing laws to be more restrictive beyond that is unnecessary. We don't need more fragmentation of rules between state(in US) and probably countries where applicable.
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@infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net 2026-05-04 05:10
The spirit of my complaint is that we should just appropriately license them. If practically that means a new class of license then yes, that's how you license them.