micromobility - Ebikes, scooters, longboards: Whatever floats your goat, this is micromobility

Fatbikes dont belong on the bike lane.

Why not?

I have an ebike that doesn't require pedalling and goes up to 35km/h on full power and full battery. No fat tyres, you'll be happy to know. (Although I still don't understand why the width of tyre bothers you.)

I've driven a taxi for years, driving kids to school, doing this in the third gen. My father used to have "gentleman of the road" on the back of his car.

I use the same principles when in traffic.

My bike is awesome and the reason I don't need to own a car myself.

Better bicycling infrastructure would be cool, and I support something that would come between be between pedestrians and cars as a a lane. I mean, bike lanes already exist, but a more dedicated "light vehicles" lane or smth that you can't walk (or cycle slowly) on.

I really like the US take on this one actually. I'm pro ebike and absolutely love motorcycles, but 45 mph is too fast to not require a licence.

Here we have 3 classes numbered as such. Class 1 is 15 mph pedal assisted, class two is 20 mph pedal assisted, and class 3 is 28 mph and allows a dedicated throttle. Class 3 often has limitations for certain bike trails, but most class 3 comes have variable modes to limit them to class 1 and 2 speeds. Generally as long as you're following trail speed limits you really don't have to worry.

This part varies by state, but in general anything over 28 mph is considered a moped and requires a proper license. As an avid motorcycle rider I feel even 28 might be too fast for non-license, but I also understand keeping up with cars, especially in cities, is way safer so I get why the limit is a bit higher than you'd expect.

I absolutely agree with this.

At this point making a helmet and insurance mandatory and minimal age is only logical. How many fatbikes will we see if any of the above becomes reality?

Here in the Netherlands fatbikes really started to become a thing after they made helmets mandatory for moped drivers

At that speed, you want something beefier than a bike frame and parts. A US class 3 ebike is limited to 27mph on a 750W motor. That's stressing the limit of bike parts, even with ebike tires and chains.

A typical human can put down around 250W into a bike, and the best athletes around 400W. 750W plus what you put into it is outside the original intent of bike parts.

If you want to go 45mph, everything needs to go up a notch in design. That increases both weight and cost. A $1-2k range is only possible with the cheapest crap scooter parts. Get closer to $4k and things look better.

People should have some kind of licensing for this. Always should have for the ICE versions, and probably for class 3 ebikes, too. Maybe just the motorcycle license, maybe something specific, but it shouldn't be wide open.

Not impossible but I think the idea is to make bicycles less annoying to pedestrians.

You bring up a key factor here: mass. A traditional bicycle weighing 10kg, going 20kph has far less force/momentum than a 35kg ebike going the same speed, and when using the throttle, the acceleration rate from 0 to 20kph increases dramatically as well.

Currently in the US we have people riding class 3 ebikes (and particularly cargo bikes) that can have base weights of 70 or 80 lbs, plus the weight of the cargo, all going at 28mph with a throttle. That's too much momentum to be safe around pedestrians and other bicyclists on multi-use trails.

IMO once ebikes start getting up to 750+ watt motors with a base weight of over 65 lbs, they should probably require some kind of licensing to operate, and perhaps insurance as well.