kwackers wrote:mattsccm wrote:Allowing, nay encouraging high powered battery bikes on the road would be great but that would have to included current moped legislation.
Of course a line has to be drawn somewhere and currently I think its fine.
With regards paths they're already illegal. Like most things it just needs enforcing, if you can't enforce it then it arguably shouldn't exist. Unenforced laws diminish the whole.
Why include current moped legislation? A moped these days is just a small motorcycle.
An electric bike is much more desirable than a moped. Lighter, massively cleaner (mopeds are one of the dirtiest vehicles on the road). Ideally we should encourage them rather than legislate them away.
In other countries they have a second tier of electric bike. More power but with more restrictions yet still (usually) without excessive legislation.
My argument is that such a vehicle would fill a hole over here too.
There doesn't seem to be much doubt in Germany and Holland that the "second tier" S-class is a bicycle rather than a motorcycle. S-class use cycle paths (compulsory?) for example, though they do also permit low power mopeds on cycle paths.
BTW a major part of the resistance to more powerful e-bikes (ie Britain getting S-class) comes from motorcycle and moped industry bodies. S-class could certainly make a hole in moped sales, having the same speed restriction (though they do have to be pedaled, no throttle control in S-class) So government would be under strong pressure to place the same restrictions on S-class pedelecs as they do on mopeds, registration, insurance, MOT, motorcycle helmet etc. In theory you could use an S-class in the UK already, you just have to register it as a moped. In practice it won't pass SVA.
Personally I wouldn't want to see S-class permitted on the UK's dreadful shared use "cycle paths". S-class would be a useful commuting tool on the road, though.
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