The Oregon Senate passed a bill updating laws around electric bicycles on Monday. It's named for a Bend teen killed in a collision while riding an e-bike last summer.
You are correct; that was an oversight on my part, and I’ve edited my comment to reflect the Oregon bill.
IMO, the two-wheel continuum is getting muddied by these sorts of bills. As it stands in California, the spectrum starts with bicycles, then ebikes, then mopeds*, then motorbikes/motorcycles. And we have an increasing scale of regulation, requirements, and licenses when moving to toward the actual motor vehicles. This ascension currently makes sense to me.
That class 3 is just shy of the moped with it’s 30 MPH (48 kph) limit is perfectly sensible to me, as is a helmet and age restriction. If we didn’t have a sliding spectrum, we’d basically be telling teenagers that they might as well go straight for mopeds or motorbikes, and that’s just opening a huge can of worms, public policy-wise.
I didn’t do an exhaustive search of Oregon law, but I have to imagine an overpowered ebike would get categorized as a moped or motorbike, subject to all those laws and regulations.
BTW, mopeds in California are very OP. An M1/M2 license, one-time registration forever, can use bike lanes, no insurance requirement, and can do 30 MPH. Just wow.
You are correct; that was an oversight on my part, and I’ve edited my comment to reflect the Oregon bill.
IMO, the two-wheel continuum is getting muddied by these sorts of bills. As it stands in California, the spectrum starts with bicycles, then ebikes, then mopeds*, then motorbikes/motorcycles. And we have an increasing scale of regulation, requirements, and licenses when moving to toward the actual motor vehicles. This ascension currently makes sense to me.
That class 3 is just shy of the moped with it’s 30 MPH (48 kph) limit is perfectly sensible to me, as is a helmet and age restriction. If we didn’t have a sliding spectrum, we’d basically be telling teenagers that they might as well go straight for mopeds or motorbikes, and that’s just opening a huge can of worms, public policy-wise.
I didn’t do an exhaustive search of Oregon law, but I have to imagine an overpowered ebike would get categorized as a moped or motorbike, subject to all those laws and regulations.