An e-bike is not a bicycle.
This picture tells part of that story. I’m almost 70. I have difficulty bicycling 10 miles, partly due to posture but also due to Atlanta’s hills. Yet I was able to go 31 miles in a little over 2 hours yesterday, in 80 degree heat, riding my Edison, a very bicycle-like e-bike.
The other picture lies in my memory.
I tried building a cargo bike in 1989. I attached a BlueSky trailer to the back of my road bike, screwed an old car seat to the floor, and put my infant daughter in it. It was sub-optimal. I couldn’t generate the watts needed either for her comfort or my capability. Now I see cargo e-bikes all the time, ridden by young mothers and fathers, sometimes with two kids in the box.
Electric motors make the impossible commonplace. But that also means an e-bike doesn’t have to be a bicycle.
I’m already seeing e-bikes that are more like small electric motorcycles on Atlanta bike paths. They can reach speeds of 35 mph. They have fat tires, and you don’t have to pedal them. As batteries get more powerful, these things get more common. How would you like to face one of these babies on the Atlanta Beltline? How many kids are going to be run over by scooters before we do something?
Laws Must Change
We also need to think about these new scooters on unpaved trails. They’re going to get faster, fast. We already segregate motorcycles from hiking trails. We need to do it on bike trails as well. That means asking, when does an e-bike become a motorcycle? At some point you need to answer that question in law and create a licensing system to enforce that law. Promenades like the east side Atlanta Beltline will also need a speed limit. I’d suggest 10 mph, and we can forgive you to 15 if there’s no accident.
But laws are useless without enforcement.
We lose over 40,000 people in traffic accidents each year, and regulators seem happy the toll’s not higher. Traffic laws are not enforced because drivers don’t want them enforced. They insist only a human cop can catch them, and the same cop must take the time to ticket them. It doesn’t scale. Drivers know this.
A big problem is relative speed, which is also a problem on bike trails. Many people go 100 mph on our freeways. Others do 60 mph on a two-lane road. Another problem is distraction, or simple idiocy. Many drivers don’t pay attention when they drive, thinking Elon Musk will save them. That’s why many drivers hate bikes, period. It forces them to pay attention.
The answer to these problems lies in technology. Traffic cameras that automatically generate tickets already exist. People who demand safety should demand them. Those who scream “freedom” should be asked, “freedom for what?” An “e-bike license” can be as simple as a $5 QR code sticker, sold at any bike shop.
Freedom to do things that kill people is a license to kill. Bikes don’t change that.
