I have owned two foldable e-bikes I purchased for my wife and I in 2020, and I can tell you...I don’t know about others but my bike, if you run out of battery, will damn well give you a workout!
Each bike weighs 60 lbs, and they are build like Sherman tanks. We fold them up, put them in the car, and drive to a bike trail. They are a blast, and a wonderful way to get out together and see things together.
I got bluetooth helmets so we could talk, and they change the whole experience in a good way.
I agree with you wholly on how dangerous these things are on a road, so needless to say, we don’t ride them on roads, if we can avoid doing so, though I do ride five miles on back roads to get to a certain bike trail. But when I have to do that, I am as nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. And I defer to cars wholly. If I see traffic coming up behind me, I am inclined to pull off the road and simply let them pass.
You sound like you bike a lot, and I have to say, you sound like you have the same kind of negative view of eBikes that many automobile riders have of bicycles. Just an observation, I could be wrong.
Back around 2017, I had a cyclist run into my car as he was splitting lanes passing a long line of stopped cars, and I was pulling through the traffic. I don’t know what happened to him, but he was taken away in an ambulance after going head over heels with his bike across my hood. It was terrible. It was the most dangerous intersection on my commute, and he was splitting the lanes there right at that intersection. I ended up having $2000 damage to my car, and had to go to court when the rider sued my insurance for medical costs and damages. I won in court because what he had been doing splitting lanes at the peak of rush hour was incredibly stupid.
My point is, pedestrians, bike riders, E-bike riders, motorcycle riders and auto riders all have to share the same space, and not a single one of those constituencies has a monopoly on selfishness, stupidity, idiocy and foolhardiness.
Pedestrians are at risk on formerly safe pedestrian only trails that allow regular bikes on them, and those aggressive bicycle riders charge past the unsuspecting pedestrians inches away at 25-30 mph without even so much as a call out or a bell. I have found agressive bike riders on trails pose as much of a risk to E-Bike riders and E-Bike riders pose to them. Motorcycle riders rail against people in cars, wearing their faults on their backs as if there weren’t jackasses on motorcycles doing idiotic and stupid things on the road. Everybody rails at the auto drivers, who with occasional good reason, rail back at the pedestrians, cyclists, E-Bike riders, motorcycle riders and everyone else.
And by the way, on my last trip to Florida, I observed the way they have bike lanes set up, painted in the middle of roads with two lanes on the left and one lane on the right looks absolutely suicidal to me. Though I will say this-in the Delray area, I didn’t see a single cyclist using those lanes in the week I spent there. That seemed pretty smart to me.
well said
Very well stated. I got an ebike last year, and whew, it is more of a workout than jogging for the reasons you stated. It weighs 60 lbs and is not very efficient, so I peddle like a maniac the whole time I’m riding just to reduce draw on the battery. I don’t race along at high speed either, usually just 12 mph or so, just like a regular bike, although obviously something that heavy picks up speed fast on downhills.