Amazing how quick governments are to pass regulations on e-bikes but cars take literal decades to see basic regulations, if they see any at all.
this post was submitted on 08 Jun 2024
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micromobility - Ebikes, scooters, longboards: Whatever floats your goat, this is micromobility
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Ebikes, bicycles, scooters, skateboards, longboards, eboards, motorcycles, skates, unicycles: Whatever floats your goat, this is all things micromobility!
"Transportation using lightweight vehicles such as bicycles or scooters, especially electric ones that may be borrowed as part of a self-service rental program in which people rent vehicles for short-term use within a town or city.
micromobility is seen as a potential solution to moving people more efficiently around cities"
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Automotive industry wields a lot of influence.
Now do cars
Things like this always make me think, ok, there are some hoodlums disturbing the peace and they are trying to crack down. But wait, isn't whatever crime they are committing already illegal? We already have laws in place so why bring e-bikes into this?
Because police have more important things to do like not solve 50% of murders and 88% of property crimes. There are minorities to oppress, don'tcha know. /s obviously
But seriously though until there's separate infrastructure to handle it this is going to keep happening. God forbid they put speed regulators on cars lol.
I like that the author included helpful bits of parenthetical background info which help frame the emergency ordinance as ill-conceived:
(The elderly and the disabled are exempt from the pedal assist ban on Pier Plaza and The Strand.)
(Hermosa Beach is the only city between Redondo Beach and Santa Monica that does not have a bike path separate from its pedestrian walkway.)
Also weird are the provisions to impound ebikes ridden specifically by juveniles. Does that mean adult riders never have to pay impound fees, but juvenile riders always have to? The devil is in the details, but levying a fee exclusively against minors seems legally suspect, and possibly extortionate if it's levied without a criminal conviction.
The emergency ordinance gives police discretionary powers to impound the e-bikes of juveniles who are cited, and to require to require payment of an impound fee before the e-bike will be released to a parent.
There's also the issue of whether bicycles and ebikes can lawfully be impounded in the same way as for automobiles. This bulletin issued by adjacent Orange County Sheriff's Department interprets the California Vehicle Code as not permitting the towing or impounding of a lawful ebike.
Have we considered doing that to cars? Most pedestrian fatalities are related to speed.