Electric Bikes In The News... Fatalities & Injuries Rising

[life behind bars]

Electric Bicycle Fatalities & Injuries Are Rising

The interaction between electric bicycles, pedestrians, cars, trucks and other cyclists needs attention as electric bicycles continue to take market share from small motorcycles and bicycles.

www.velocipedesalon.com

 

[Nurse Ben]

Conclusion: poor physical condition + heavier bike + faster bike = more accidents.

That’s not really news, just common sense.

 

[figofspee]

Good to hear that the over 65 crowd is out riding bicycles instead of driving a car. The old dog new tricks issue means that some are going to get injured or killed before they learn how to properly ride an ebike.

Although anybody dying is unfortunate, it is always good to put the numbers into perspective. Motorists kill 1.25 million people every year and injure 35 million.

 

[Crankout]

Seems to me that LBS's need to require some training on the proper handling of them at the time of sale.

 

[leeboh]

^^^ What? Like the car and motorcycle dealers do? Not.

 

[howardv]

"Electric bicycles are typically two to three times the mass of non-electric bicycles, and this extra mass is additive to the body weight of the rider"

An average mountain bike is 30 lbs. An average e-mtb is about 50 lbs. That's not 2 to 3 times the weight.

Someone needs to inform the writer how many people are killed by cars every year. Personally, if given the choice, I'd rather have an old guy crash into me with an e-bike rather than a car.

 

[WHALENARD]

That bike in the picture is an electic motorcycle, lets not confuse it with a bicycle or even what most would consider an e-bike. The countries listed here have a culture and infrastructure that leans heavily bike commuter. Much different than cities in the USA...not apples to apples. When you introduce motorcycles in with heavy bicycle commuter traffic, mix in inexperience etc., well the results speak for themselves.

 

[Klurejr]

Both the blessing and the curse of "freedom" where we live.

I live near Camp Pendleton. I ride a motorcycle to work. The shop I use to install tires for me is a motorcycle super store and only a few miles from Base. I see Marines in there all the time shopping for brand new 200hp motorcycles. Young Marines come in with a permit(30 min paper test) and buy these bikes all the time and end up off a cliff in the mountains or smashed into a car because there are no laws restricting who can buy or sell such machines.

Personally I think it is a bad idea to give anyone without experience/training the ability to just go out and buy something and ride off without any sort of training. But I really see ZERO potential for laws to ever be created in this country to restrict that, either for motorcycles, high performance sports cars or eBikes.

 

[ron t]

That site seems to be promoting electric cars. The top 3 links in the menu bar are a clue to their agenda. I doubt they know anything about bikes of any sort.

 

[Crankout]

True; good point.

 

[Giant Warp]

If I was in my 80s I'd much rather die on an ebike than in a rest home.

 

[sfgiantsfan]

You can pedal it, that seems to be a major sticking point with ebikers considering it a bike.

 

[tahoebeau]

Yup. If it looks more like a bicycle than a motorcycle than it is an ebike. Since there is no other practical way to differentiate the two, that will continue stay the way the two type of motorized vehicles are identified and it will never change. The amount of power an ebike has is irrelevant.