dont worry about new york, ebikes have been illegal there for a long time and that cities policies towards ebikes is not a reflection of the rest of the country, especially with the new and more unified regulations regarding ebike power levels. the reason ny is so weird about ebikes is because ny delivery people were the first group of people in the country to understand and utilize ebikes, way back in the day, and when they did they were complete ass holes about it. because they rode way too fast and inappropriately, ebikes have a very bad reputation in that neighborhood.
the new regulations, if i remember correctly, call for several tiers of ebike power levels. the lowest is 20mph top speed on level ground and no throttle. you can ride those anywhere. then there are two higher tiers, the higher one can have a throttle. those bikes are only supposed to ride in designated areas if i remember correctly. this is a federal regulation that leaves the details to its implementer. but if you go forward in time you will probably see a set of rules like those i described pretty much everywhere.
one exciting thing about ebikes is that their power is limited by law but their energy is not. as ebikes become more mainstream and higher prices more tolerated, you will see bikes with more and more battery capacity. you will see bikes that only go 20mph but can go for hundreds of miles at top speed up and down hills. eventually even that kind of ebike will be affordable.
another exciting thing is the new class of bike that will come out of all this. like the article says, it isnt crazy to think of these as alternatives to cars rather than bikes. and this will be reflected in new kind of bikes that are heavier duty, with very nice shocks and huge batteries. you will just see stuff that was never on bikes before, like windscreens and nice seats. on these bikes, pedals will basically become vestigial. you will simply use the pedals as a kind of accelerator (not being replaced by a traditional acc. pedal or throttle for legal reasons and to make the bike ride-able anywhere). youll have very fine tuned control over the speed and acceleration of the vehicle through these special pedals. i think we might also see total enclosure of the bike for all-weather operation. thats pretty difficult to do though.
i was considering starting some kind of business to catch this wave. if anybody is interested maybe hit me up