Again, we’re drifting into territory which is effectively a call to liberalise moped regulations, by permitting them to be used without insurance, registration, or compulsory helmets.Perhaps it's time we had a proper conversation about e-bikes and about loosening the regulations
If that’s what people want, fine, let them say so, and campaign for it openly. But, don’t mix it up by calling what is being sought an e-bike, when the well-understood term for it is ‘moped’.
My gut feel is that if the things in question, the things that some people want liberality around, still made a loud rasping sound and left a trail of blue smoke, we’d be having a different conversation. We might even recall why and how the law became as it is, after a shocking number of youngsters killed themselves riding overly powerful ones in the 1970s.
As an aside, it does seem odd to be calling for liberalisation when the incident in question does, at least on the face of it, allowing that the face may not be the whole story, look like the very sort of thing the current laws are there to prevent: young lads suffering a tragic end because of their natural love of speed and inability to properly understand risks when in charge of a relatively powerful machine.
As a footnote: it is possible to simultaneously lack faith in the honesty and competence of a high percentage of police officers, and believe that the e-bike and moped regulations are not far wrong as they stand now, and to wonder what is going through the minds of adults who buy youngsters fairly powerful machines to ride, and to be sceptical about claims that liberalising moped laws would get people out of cars to any significant degree.
