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Comment by runaway | Hacker News Reader

These aren't mopeds to me. They don't have pedals.

In Ohio, a moped must have pedals and are governed under special laws distinct from scooters and motorcycles.

Either 2 wheels or 3 wheels (1 front and 2 rear). The vehicle must be capable of being pedaled as well as carrying a helper motor, which cannot: ―Have a piston displacement larger than 50 cc. ―Be capable of producing more than 1 HP. ―Obtain a maximum speed greater than 20 MPH on a level surface.

> Either 2 wheels or 3 wheels (1 front and 2 rear).

this is backwards thinking, two wheel in front is the safer design. decelerating shifts center of gravity forward. turning shifts it to the side . having a wheel there to support it lets you slow down going into a corner (as I am want to do)

That entire law only exists to serve as a incentive not to use anything bigger than a bike but smaller than a full blown motorcycle.

I think these should be called scooters. Unfortunately, English also uses that word for kick scooters, and now the two are hopelessly confused.

The terminology is a complete muddle in English. Even reading through that article I had to go back and forth a bit to understand what was being discussed in a given paragraph.

If you just say scooter these days, there are about four different things you could be referring to.

The term is "motor scooter". Just like a motorcycle is a bicycle with an engine, these are scooters with motors.

A moped does have to have pedals and there are some companies making them. But the entire thing is an anachronistic shell game. These are all motorcycles, just of lesser power/ability. They only exist because of silly legal classifications that mean little on a modern street. Everyone on the street riding something with two wheels and a motor should get a motorcycle license, a helmet, and be subject to proper emission controls.

Except this is actually electric. (Which in fact does mean it has a motor although, to add to the confusion, motor is often used to mean engine :-) ) As a result, by analogy with motorcycle, I would assume a motor scooter had a gasoline engine.

how about "electro scooter"?

for all practical purposes, actual mopeds with pedals don't exist in north america, so using moped as a short word for a sit-down motor scooter is pretty unambigious.

not sure if pedal-mopeds have similarly fallen out of favour in the rest of the world?

I've been in your camp before, but generally mopeds are legally defined by maximum engine displacement (usually 50cc, though not sure how that works with electric motors) and speed (50km).

They've taken to calling them e-bikes here regardless of what form-factor they take, be it electric-augmented bike or Vespa style scooter.

In FL, a moped also has pedals and low power and does not need a tag/registration, nor a drivers license.

I’ve seen normal street bicycles retrofitted gas engines, ala early 1900’s motorcycles.

I have the understanding that aside from cost, people without a license due to DUI ride these since they can’t legally drive.

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