A California school district wanted electric bikes away from its younger students' campuses. The bikes did not necessarily disappear. Some of them moved
That’s the problem though: ebikes are required to have speed and power cutoffs …but you can import a modkit or even an entire bike that exceeds those cutoffs with zero problem or oversight and just start riding it around. There’s no enforcement or consequences until a kid hits a parked car going 70km/h
And you can mod your car or motorbike to do all sorts of illegal things too.
That’s where you need to have enforcement and consequences.
Over here they do just that. When they see an e-bike or e-scooter go too fast, police puts it on a kind of specialized treadmill and see how fast it goes. If it’s faster than 25km/h then the owner (might be the kid if the kid is old enough, otherwise it’s the parents) gets fined for running an uninsured, untypified motorbike without license plate or valid inspection sticker and usually also without a fitting driver’s license.
This usually results in fines upwards of €5000 and if the owner has e.g. a car driver’s license they might lose that one too.
If the rider is also going over the speed limit, they’ll face steep fines (and points on their license) as well.
The vehicle will also be impounded until the owner proves they are making it road legal.
The result: I’ve seen them maybe go 30km/h, but never something ridiculous like 70km/h.
That’s the problem though: ebikes are required to have speed and power cutoffs …but you can import a modkit or even an entire bike that exceeds those cutoffs with zero problem or oversight and just start riding it around. There’s no enforcement or consequences until a kid hits a parked car going 70km/h
And you can mod your car or motorbike to do all sorts of illegal things too.
That’s where you need to have enforcement and consequences.
Over here they do just that. When they see an e-bike or e-scooter go too fast, police puts it on a kind of specialized treadmill and see how fast it goes. If it’s faster than 25km/h then the owner (might be the kid if the kid is old enough, otherwise it’s the parents) gets fined for running an uninsured, untypified motorbike without license plate or valid inspection sticker and usually also without a fitting driver’s license.
This usually results in fines upwards of €5000 and if the owner has e.g. a car driver’s license they might lose that one too.
If the rider is also going over the speed limit, they’ll face steep fines (and points on their license) as well.
The vehicle will also be impounded until the owner proves they are making it road legal.
The result: I’ve seen them maybe go 30km/h, but never something ridiculous like 70km/h.
Yes, that was the point i was making. The issue is enforcement- but instead of doing that, people just turn to outright bans
That’s a fair point.
This is a big problem, I just watched a 12-14 yo going 35 mph, keeping up with cars. Parents like to help kids go faster for some reason