They made a lot of sense during the oil crisis but why would anyone really bother getting licensed, paying for registration and maintaining insurance when you can get an electric bike and get a very similar experience without all that hassle?
I'm not trying to be dismissive mind you, but genuinely curious if this potential market will be big enough to address it.
That's actually what pedal-assist restrictions are all about, clearly delineating the bicycles from the motorbikes. This also manages expectations for users. You shouldn't expect to play in traffic at 60+kmph as a cyclist, and you shouldn't expect to be riding your much heavier, much faster electric moped on bike paths.
The form factors can make that line blurry, you could totally have a bicycle that can do 60+ and you could easily have a moped that looks small enough to be a bicycle. Hence the regulations to clear up any confusion.
From a personal exprience point of view, I would expect to be able to comfortably wear leathers and a moto helmet and not negatively impact the ride. On a pedal assist bicycle there is no way I am wearing leathers and because of that I don't want to be going 60-80kmph in traffic unprotected, I want to be on seperated bike paths.
I'm a long-time motorcyclist, but around the city, I prefer my bicycle. I can go on beautiful bike paths through parks, take breaks along the river, and not worry about a helmet hair. At lower speeds I don't need protective gear. I can carry much more stuff with my saddle bags.
Oh and there are no biannual inspections, no insurance, no petrol. Maintaining a bicycle is a breeze.
In Berlin, bicycle is just better. An electric one would be just as good, even with the EU limitations.
Decades ago, I used to be a bicycle commuter in Somerville, MA (USA). There weren't any usable bike paths, and so cyclists had to use the street and follow traffic rules like any other vehicle—lanes, signaling, etc. Local police enthusiastically enforced the law, and normally expected adult bikes to act as vehicles. Drivers were typical for the Boston area: Aggressive, minimal use of signals, but good awareness.
There was a major 3-lane intersection with roads going (left)/(left+straight)/(straight+right). A safe left turn required moving into and fully occupying the middle lane in traffic, typically sprinting at around 30 km/h. Which is about the top legal speed I've seen for pedal assist. This is not an especially comfortable speed in complex traffic, and I didn't enjoy it. I don't think you'd want lots of unskilled people doing this on ebikes, either. With 30 km/h intersections, you want people to be predictable and to strictly follow all traffic laws. And to be honest, casual cyclists do not reliably follow traffic laws.
On steep, empty roads, I've twice hit about 65 km/h on descents on road bikes. I personally found this unnerving without full motorcycle gear, especially when I encountered poor road conditions on a corner. Never again.
So yeah, an electric moped is a whole different game than a class 1 peddle-assist ebike. 30 km/h accidents can be awful, but 50 km/h accidents can easily turn deadly for the unprotected human body.
There's a pretty strong contradiction here. Nowhere on earth, except maybe North Korea does the traffic actually reflect the law.
And IMO predictability > letter of the law every time.
For example, an ebike in Europe is speed limited to 25kph, and just small motors that can only output 250W.
https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/vehicle-registration/new-regis...
"You must have a motorcycle license (M1 or M2) to drive a moped."
Heck, I don't even know what is supposed to be "50ccm" ebike, ebikes are limited by laws in regard to their power wattage (250W) and speed (25kmh), not volume.
Specifically EU directive says for pedal assisted ebike is this: "cycles with pedal assistance which are equipped with an auxiliary electric motor having a maximum continuous rated power of 0.25 kW, of which the output is progressively reduced and finally cut off as the vehicle reaches a speed of 25 km/h [15.5 mph], or sooner, if the cyclist stops pedalling"
Everything else ain't ebike and requires some sort of license. Though of course the reality is police won't be checking every single ebike on road and they have no way to meaure the power.
But in many jurisdictions registering a moped is extremely easy - in MA and VT at least, it’s honor system. In MA you have to go into the RMV but don’t have to have anything beyond the bill of sale and a VIN. VT you can even send in the form, you don’t even have to live in VT.
You usually have to have a learners permit at the very least - sometimes a drivers license. I’m sure there are some places where you need a motorcycle endorsement, but I’m not aware of any in the US.