Snoop
Well-known member
- Local time
- 8:14 PM
- Joined
- Jul 5, 2022
- Messages
- 573
Trying to understand NYS rules and laws regarding ebiking can make your head spin and there seems to be a lot of punting to local municipalities (who probably don’t always have specific rules in place).
From my understanding, however, unless you live in NY City, NY State is pretty ebike unfriendly.
I believe that Class 3’s are considered illegal outside NYC. Fortunately, Aventon allows you to adjust the setting on the Pace 500 (my bike) to max it’s assist at 20 mph instead of 28, dropping it to a Class 2.
Many bike paths are posted “no motorized vehicles,” which would include ebikes.
NYS Parks may or may not allow them (I am fuzzy on this).
The biggest kicker is that while a regular bike can legally pedal on any road, ebikes are not allowed on roads with speed limits posted higher than 30 mph. This knocks out 90% of the roads in the state, IMO.
Fortunately I can work around this on my work commute via neighborhoods and paths, but it makes it near impossible to take a longer journey as you could easily get trapped on a road if the speed limit changes.
To me, this seems senseless and over-regulatory. It also seems discriminatory. Since many ebikers choose their bike to assist pedaling because of health reasons of physical limitations, it seems like discrimination to allow regular bikers on faster roads but not ebikers. I imagine an enthusiastic lawyer out there could make a case against the state if they were motivated enough.
From my understanding, however, unless you live in NY City, NY State is pretty ebike unfriendly.
I believe that Class 3’s are considered illegal outside NYC. Fortunately, Aventon allows you to adjust the setting on the Pace 500 (my bike) to max it’s assist at 20 mph instead of 28, dropping it to a Class 2.
Many bike paths are posted “no motorized vehicles,” which would include ebikes.
NYS Parks may or may not allow them (I am fuzzy on this).
The biggest kicker is that while a regular bike can legally pedal on any road, ebikes are not allowed on roads with speed limits posted higher than 30 mph. This knocks out 90% of the roads in the state, IMO.
Fortunately I can work around this on my work commute via neighborhoods and paths, but it makes it near impossible to take a longer journey as you could easily get trapped on a road if the speed limit changes.
To me, this seems senseless and over-regulatory. It also seems discriminatory. Since many ebikers choose their bike to assist pedaling because of health reasons of physical limitations, it seems like discrimination to allow regular bikers on faster roads but not ebikers. I imagine an enthusiastic lawyer out there could make a case against the state if they were motivated enough.