All the speed of motorcycles without the sound awareness, what could possibly go wrong? My overall experience is that E-bike riders generally have decent cycling manners, it's the scooter and unicycle riders that seem to think they can just crank their walking speed up to 30mph and go everywhere a pedestrian would. I usually just give them a firm "heads up next time" when I get buzzed by an electric motor whine at 20mph.
I used to ride a motorcycle, now I have an ebike. They seem equally safe to me, which is to say neither are safe at all if there are other people on the road. The only solution is extremely defensive driving/riding, assume no one (including pedestrians) can see you. This attitude has been embedded deeply in the motorcycle culture and is the best way to all-around responsible riders -- and it needs to be propagated to ebike riders. I don't think it's about having manners, really. Also, sound awareness is a myth propagated by Harley riders.
>Also, sound awareness is a myth propagated by Harley riders.
This pisses me off so much. I know harley riders that have straight pipes and ride around with ear plugs in to keep from going deaf. Anyone caught over the legal noise limit should have their ride confiscated. It's asshole behavior masquerading as 'safety'.
The only saving grace is at least they know the word 'safety'. I've ridden with such guys too and yes they are assholes, but notably they espouse the same defensive riding opinions of most riders, and they're still alive. That's the key in my opinion, being safe/responsible is not the same as being polite, and I think this gets lost when people focus only on (e)bikers needing to learn good manners and be nice to other road users. (One should do both of course.)
> assume no one (including pedestrians) can see you
Exactly. I'm in the same situation. I used to ride a motorcycle (that I still own but almost never use now) and am on an ebike every day.
It's not about "assuming" no on "can" see you: it's that nobody does see you, and nobody cares.
It's also the fact that people don't think about your speed or your ability to slow down fast -- they only care about your general volume. People will be more careful around a big parked truck than when faced with a small barrel rolling down a hill at full speed.
The way to stay alive is to be able to predict what everyone is about to do. I think I have become quite good at this, although one is always learning.
I find the e-bike that the article talks about (S-pedelec) to be the peak of unsafeness for two wheeled vehicles. A colleague had one and let me try it - I quickly noped out.
He's doing 40mph in traffic with his bike shorts and a flimsy helmet. The power to weight ratio also gives him enormous acceleration, so he can jump from the red lights in front of everyone. Other drivers often misjudge how quickly he can move and he had some close calls like this.
If I were the author I would reconsider using one of these, especially with his history of accidents...
Power two weight is very modest, it's only a 350 W motor in there for this one.
My history with accidents is simple: I was cycling on a low racer recumbent and hit a traffic obstacle at a very unfortunate angle. Shit happens. But this bike is about 100x times safer than that recumbent. And a lot slower too, in spite of being assisted, low racers are very fast for unpowered bikes.
Yes the problem with ebikes isn't other people being aware of the bike's sound, it's the rider being aware of the risk to themselves and others. Maybe this is ingrained in the motorcycle culture, but it seems like most buyers of ebikes I know have never ridden a motorcycle before and were not riding bicycles regularly either. They just go "oh this makes my commute like that time I biked when I was on vacation" and approach safety with a lackadaisical attitude. That makes them relatively irresponsible riders in my opinion. This problem hopefully fixes itself over time as they learn from accidents and an ebike safety culture emerges, but for now it's pretty sad.
The bigger danger here in NL are the elderly, who suddenly go zooming around at twice the speeds they had before they got their e-bikes. Accidents every day like that, nasty ones too.
You probably mean "one wheel" riders? (As in the electric, low profile, self balancing type, not the traditional large wheel, seated, fixed axle unicycle) Unless you live around an inordinate amount of rude unicyclists. In that case, I must see that as it sounds very humorous.
Scooters are a plague (and this bike is classed as a scooter, unfortunately, so I'm lumped in with the worst), but a bigger danger is mobile phone use by cyclists. That's roughly 1/3rd of all the adults and 2/3rds of the teenagers here.
Screen-zombie pedestrians annoy me as well. So do uneven pavements, trash, rocks and any other obstacles that appear on my way. If I'm on an electric scooter or a bike though it's my responsibility to ensure that I'm not riding a silent, heavy and fast vehicle into someone. Especially if they can't see me because I'm approaching from behind. And to emphasise - there is an entire range of pedestrians that might have a disability (mobility issues, seeing, hearing etc.) which makes them much more vulnerable to accidents.
Absolutely. But spending time on your mobile phone has no place in traffic and that has nothing to do with being disabled. It's just being grossly disrespectful towards others and endangering them and yourself.
Sure it does if you’re in a cross walk. As a driver of a vehicle, you should be yielding to those as per their right of way and paying attention to anyone who might or might not take their right of way.
In practice: cyclist head down looking at their mobile phone swerving all over the road, two hands holding the phone to be able to text using whatsapp or whatever other IM they are using entirely lost situational awareness. I've seen enough accidents from this by now to become an advocate for substantially increased fines for cell phone use in traffic.
