Christ I see shit like this and then think back to the constant whining “why are younger generations leaving Iowa”?!

Because you do boomer things like this! Kids want to have e bikes, and rather than thinking “how can evokes move more safely on our streets” they instead go “we should punish ebike users for trying to use our car-centric infrastructure”.

You will drive and you will like it! Sounds like it basically kills off biking and scooters in its entirety.

Some serious problems with that bill! But looking specifically at the restrictions on Class 3 - where I live, California, Class 3 e-bikes are already banned from multi-use trails. I don’t think that’s a bad idea. 28 mph is awfully fast for places where one could easily hit a pedestrian. Pedestrians have been killed in collisions. Some of those were confirmed to be illegal e-motos, and I’d guess that most of the unconfirmed cases are too. But at least one case looks like it may have involved a Velotric Go 1 with an unlocked speed of 25 mph.

Impact energy increases with the square of speed (KE = ½mv²), so Class 3 is 40% faster than Class 1, but carries nearly double the kinetic energy (1.96x) for the same mass.

I’m inclined to agree with the take from Berm Peak: no restrictions on riding Class 1 e-bikes, but treat bikes with throttles, higher speeds, and more powerful motors with more scrutiny. That way there is one thing called an e-bike, and it’s much easier for everyone to understand. Fewer deadly accidents means reduced threat of sledgehammer legislation. We could still have start assist - some states, including California, explicitly allow start assist on Class 1.

Edit: Linkified the Berm Peak reference