I’m guessing this is mostly about what are effectively electric motorbikes. In Finland you’re not allowed to drive motor vehicles on other people’s land without their permission but pedal assist eBikes with 250W motor and limited to 25kph (15mph) are considered bicycles by law and those you are allowed to ride anywhere.
Vehicle culture is just generally different here in the United States. Even if sane, rational rules for ebikes were to be established they’d be ignored out of spite. For any idea of the quality of individuals I’m talking about, yesterday I saw two separate vehicles enter the bus station by passing the “DO NOT ENTER” sign, realize that the road they were on wasn’t going to their fucking hotel or wherever they were heading, drive up onto the pedestrian portion of the bus station, turn around, and leave the wrong direction on a one way street. Speaking specifically for bicycles I’ve been doing trail maintenance and had a mountain biker come at me screaming because we were out there working and were in his way after he passed a sign telling him the trail was closed and climbed a fence we put up just after the sign as a result of previous and similar incidents.
Edit: I should probably clarify what I meant by ‘on mountain’ that’s just kind of shorthand slang for the property controlled by the local ski resort. Though the feds have similar rules, so buying an electric mountain bike around here is stupid since all you’ve done is spent at least another $2,000 on a bicycle you can’t legally use outside of your private property.
I’m guessing this is mostly about what are effectively electric motorbikes. In Finland you’re not allowed to drive motor vehicles on other people’s land without their permission but pedal assist eBikes with 250W motor and limited to 25kph (15mph) are considered bicycles by law and those you are allowed to ride anywhere.
Vehicle culture is just generally different here in the United States. Even if sane, rational rules for ebikes were to be established they’d be ignored out of spite. For any idea of the quality of individuals I’m talking about, yesterday I saw two separate vehicles enter the bus station by passing the “DO NOT ENTER” sign, realize that the road they were on wasn’t going to their fucking hotel or wherever they were heading, drive up onto the pedestrian portion of the bus station, turn around, and leave the wrong direction on a one way street. Speaking specifically for bicycles I’ve been doing trail maintenance and had a mountain biker come at me screaming because we were out there working and were in his way after he passed a sign telling him the trail was closed and climbed a fence we put up just after the sign as a result of previous and similar incidents.
Edit: I should probably clarify what I meant by ‘on mountain’ that’s just kind of shorthand slang for the property controlled by the local ski resort. Though the feds have similar rules, so buying an electric mountain bike around here is stupid since all you’ve done is spent at least another $2,000 on a bicycle you can’t legally use outside of your private property.