Electric Scooters and E-Bikes

[Aylmer]

Originally Posted by rocketphish

[B]Coroner's office calls for clearer definition of e-bikes in Ontario
Recommendations come in the wake of deaths on Ottawa-area roads

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/co...finition-of-e-bikes-in-ontario-9.6993435

I really love that the coroner is interested in the role of vehicle weight and speed in injuries and fatalities. There are a lot of ebikes that are way too heavy and go way too fast. If you're struck by a 120 kg ebike going at 50 km/h, that's gonna hurt.

You can go play with a kinetic energy calculator to see how much exactly it would hurt.

Some fun examples:

Getting hit at a max-weight ebike at double the legal e-assist speed limit is the same kinetic energy as:

• being hit by an F150 at 10 km/h
• being hit by a Toyota Yaris at 16 km/h

Getting hit at an average-weight ebike (22 kg) at the 32 km/h that they're limited to is equivalent in impact to:

• being hit by an F150 at 2.9 km/h
• being hit by a Toyota Yaris at 4.3 km/h

Getting hit by a Yaris doing 40 km/h is equivalent to:

• a max-weight ebike doing 125 km/h
• an average-weight ebike doing slightly less than a brisk 300 km/h

Their priorities are right where they need to be, thank goodness.

[J.OT13]

Driving a monster truck is a God given right! Bikes are the devil.

[Williamoforange]

Cars aren't normally being driven on the exact same path as pedestrians....So yeah unironically better regs are needed for what are essentially motorcycles being driven through a loophole onto paths where motorcycles should not exist.

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Williamoforange

Cars aren't normally being driven on the exact same path as pedestrians....So yeah unironically better regs are needed for what are essentially motorcycles being driven through a loophole onto paths where motorcycles should not exist.

Yes, you're right. Pedestrians never cross busy intersections and cars never ever hit pedestrians.

Not saying we shouldn't look into e-bikes and provide clearer definitions, but it's frankly insulting that these few incidents triggered such recommendations while much higher death tolls caused by ridiculously large motor vehicles are always shrugged off.