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Comment by dbajakkchs | Hacker News Reader

Why do you say they aren’t street legal?

”On the roadway, it must be operated in the bicycle lane, if there is one. On roads without bicycle lanes, motorized scooters may operate where the speed limit is 25 mph or less“

Seems pretty limiting to me. Street legal in a VERY constrained set of circumstances. Only roads with bicycle lanes or a speed limit of 25mph or less. And probably varies wildly based on jurisdiction.

https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/?1dmy&urile=wcm:path:/dmv_...

Edit: Downvoting? That’s cool, but please explain where I’m off base. Do you not think that “has bike lanes or a speed limit of 25mph” is pretty limited?

I didn’t downvote, however I would say that 25 mph speed limit is definitely compatible with street legal. Cyclist commuters hardly reach that speed. It’s faster than traffic in a congested city. And based on the look of those scooters, I have a hard time believing they’d even be stable above 25 mph.

It sounds to me the regulations may be more intended to restrict the speed of things that look like bicycles or mopeds, and probably won’t affect these scooters at all. Look at how small those wheels are.

It's that the roadway itself has a posted speed limit of 25mph or less, or has bicycle lanes. That's not common.

So, for example, a roadway with a posted 30mph limit, and no bike lanes...the scooters are not legal in that case.

I see, that does sound like they would be pretty much useless in the burbs, more useful in some downtown cores, but you’d have to keep track of the speed limit on the particular road you’re on.

The rules on ebikes in California are very different - there is a 20 mph speed limit for throttle control, and 28 mph speed limit for pedal assist. But the limit applies to the bike, not the road. I got confused by the differences between the two laws.

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