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For those of you in countries that care about people and push pedestrian safety in vehicle design: take a close look at that front bumper if you haven't.
The limiter on an ebike also protects the 14 year old kid riding it from going too fast. If it didn't have limits then it'd be an electric motorbike that would need licencing, insurance, roadworthiness etc.
OK but I'm not 14 nor are most of the people riding electric bikes. You can voluntarily put a limiter on it if your kid is riding it.
What does the 14yo have to do with licensing, insurance and roadworthiness?
It's totally possible to put age restrictions on activities without requireing licensing, insurance or anything else. You don't need a license or insurance to drink, for example.
To be fair that truck is unsafe at any speed.
Even sitting in the parking lot people bash their legs on the tow hitch.
bash their legs on the tow hitch
I doubt that very much, see as it's practically at eye-level.
At the rate many pedestrians are locked into looking down at their phones, eye level obstructions are maybe more dangerous.
The height actually makes it worse cause they will often have a drop hitch to get low enough to meet the trailer, this tends to make it even less noticeable that there is a hitch at shin level.
I'd say the speed limits on ebikes are primarily there for the safety of the operator, not others. Pretty much all cars nowadays have similar electronic limits.
For instance my wrangler is limited to about 80 through the engineering of a low power engine and the wind resistance of a cardboard box.
They are there because ebikes often share space with pedestrians, and bycicle paths are much more likely to intersect
The people getting the limiter laws passed aren't doing it for rider safety, they're doing it because their constituent's confirmation bias and motornormativity is causing them to phone or write in complaints that they would have never made over a near-death encounter with a pickup truck.
The electric bicycle doesn't require a license to use. Supposedly you have been properly trained in the operation of a vehicle and are licensed to use it before getting behind the wheel. Supposedly. In reality the DMV hands licenses out like Halloween candy.
I've got a license to drive heavy-weight vehicles, I should be allowed to ride my ebike at 90km/h, pretty please?
Get a scooter or motorcycle then? You absolutely should be able to drive a high speed 2 wheeled vehicle if you have the training and one safe to travel that speed.
I hit 50 MPH on downhills on my regular human-powered bicycle. Don't need a license or training for that either.
The arguments made for bicycles being speed limited make sense, because it's not just about licensing requirements (what precious few there are...) but also mechanical limits on safe operation and a need to find a balance between individual freedom and public safety.
This is also the reason why, in Europe at least, all trucks have a 90 km/h governor by law, even though truck drivers are licensed to a higher standard than car drivers.
Cars being excluded from the conversations we are having about trucks and bicycles and motorcycles is nothing but pure hypocrisy. But then again, when has hypocrisy ever stopped a politician?
Fuck cars, but also fuck idiots on unlicensed 40mph Temu deathtraps.
Want to go Bertie Big Bollocks fast, grow some leg muscles.
Tbf, an idiot in a 40mph temu deathtrap crashing against you would still do roughly half the damage of one of those trucks crashing against you at 10mph. But yeah, I hate them too.
that will be the bike
I'm for options. Where I live there is no option. You must drive. The busses come once and hour and go nowhere useful itnseems. There are few sidewalks and fewer bike lanes. Even if you wanted to ride a bike there's strides everywhere making it dangerous AF.
I want the option to drive, or walk, or ride a bike, or take a bus.
Which one of these vehicles expects to be operated in pedestrian spaces?
I don't know why this is so hard. Cars should also have speed limiters, and the reason they don't is bullshit tradition. As we invent the next paradigm in personal transportation we shouldn't be making the same mistakes. I really can't imagine how anyone could disagree with this unless they are acting in bad faith.
The existence of ebikes doesn't depreciate the existence of motorcycles or mopeds. If you want a motorcycle or moped then get one, but don't pretend it's ok to ride it on bike paths.
Ebikes typically have a speed limiter. That brodozer doesn't because they modded it.
However, some go fuck-all by rolling their own ebikes for higher speeds to get around license restrictions normally needed for a motorcycle.
I actually think the point of this lifted truck is to kill pedestrians; a lot of people LARP running people over and getting away with no consequences.
They also usually own firearms.
So should you (and know firearms safety)
Plus one of them doesn't blow exhaust into the face of the rider on the other one. I know I'd take the one that doesn't have exhaust.