Today is a big day for the future of e-bikes in New York City. A hearing starts at 10 a.m. You can file a written comment until 5 p.m. You can also send an email to [email protected] until 5 p.m
Today is a big day for the future of e-bikes in New York City. A hearing starts at 10 a.m. You can file a written comment until 5 p.m. You can also send an email to [email protected] until 5 p.m
Love it here on /c/fuckbikes
This thread is full of people who have never been to NYC and think this cap is somehow a good idea and not a death sentence both figuratively for micromobility and literally for e-bikers who have to deal with much faster car traffic.
It’s not even about nyc. Haven’t been there in a while myself.
Its about car brains who see cars as entitled and everything else as the enemy. The mods really need to get bulk bans going.
I’m a former moderator of /r/nycbike on reddit and I can attest, a lot of cyclists hate ebikers because instead of seeing an ally against car culture they just see one more “other” with whom they have to compete for limited bike infrastructure space, who they feel goes too fast in those spaces, and they think isn’t enforced against enough. I hate to say it but just like most groups of people, a lot of cyclists aren’t able to step back and appreciate a shared struggle. They don’t realize that they’re doing the exact same thing to ebikers that car drivers do to them. They don’t realize that the limited space they’re fighting over is an arbitrary restriction. They don’t realize how legislating against ebikes is just a wedge, the tip of which is destined to cut them too once driven too far. So while I’m sure a lot of the detractors in this thread are legitimate car brains, I wouldn’t be surprised if just as many if not more of them are subscriber cyclists who maybe need a reality check.
That attitude is crazy prevalent. I ride an ebike in DC, and after passing a guy on his acoustic bike, he caught up to me to bikeshame me for riding “a motorcycle”, and complained how he almost gets run over by ebikes every day (I was nowhere near him, I think he thought he was being funny). Ok, sure dude. I’m sure it’s ebikers almost run over you every day, not the thousands of distracted drivers.
The worst part is the dude ran two stop signs to catch up to me, while wearing no helmet. I’ve never seen such a clear posengeur who couldn’t deal with being passed. I am not your safety problem, bro.
Which is to say, he’s never been harmed by an ebike in his life. Notice how his anecdote perfectly mirrors stories from pedestrians about the number of times they’ve “almost been hit by cyclists” while meanwhile they’ve literally never been hit by a bike and are much more likely to get hit by a car. No perspective. No self-crit.
Frustrated with the general overwhelming flood of car brains on every post here. How every comment is how bad cyclists are or the pedestrian who got turned to a fine red mist was actually at fault etc.
Is it a road speed limit? or a limit on bike power? If the former, it’s not so much an attack on micromobility. Can take the road to pass or go faster. The cars can physically do 120mph, but have NYC speed limits.
It is a ROAD speed limit for ebikes. It’s like no one responding to you read the bill. It is not a mandated governor for ebikes, and has nothing to do with sidewalks or bike paths. The speed limit for cars is 25, for human powered vehicles is 25, but they want to limit ebikes because “they are heavier” and implied therefore more dangerous. It is a crazy bad law.
It is the latter, a limit on bike power.
read the proposal. It is definitely vague, but I think it means “normal” traffic speed limits.
You’re right, it is indeed a legal speed limit and not a physical throttle requirement, thanks for getting me to actually scrutinize it. However I still strongly disagree that this is not an attack on micromobility: A 15 MPH cap is simply not safe for NYC streets where traditional cyclists, cars, trucks, busses, etc are all traveling > 20 MPH. This bill is designed to score quick points for Adams with reactionary New Yorkers who only encounter ebikes when they’re zooming down the sidewalk at the start or end of their trips. It will be selectively enforced, just like the existing ban on riding on the sidewalk is. A far better solution would be to just actually enforce the existing ban on sidewalk riding, and not selectively.
Conservative leaders in NYC and NYPD pull shit like this all the time: Selectively / rarely enforce a sensible law -> Dum-dum voters think no such law exists because they continue to see violations -> Propose new law to “fix” the issue -> Easy votes from dum-dums -> Selectively / rarely enforce the new law -> Wash rinse repeat. Everyone loses.