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Comment by pvtmert | Hacker News Reader

They need a distinction between pedal assist and fully electric (motor) bike.

I live in Luxembourg and the infrastructure is not as good as the Netherlands. Majority of offenders (in my experience) are delivery guys and teenagers. Where teenagers simply don't care & do reckless things like passing on a big intersection at full speed on a red light, delivery guys do the same things for extra tips.

Some of the fat-tire electric bikes are really fast, I happen to chase them on Kirchberg cycle road. I sustained 40km/h average behind delivery guys and they were still faster, eventually dropping me. (I was on a road bike).

Simply put, anything above 250watts does not belong to cycle lane.Includes humans :j

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> need a distinction between pedal assist and fully electric (motor) bike

The only meaningful difference is if there is a motor or not. If there is a motor, it gets a speedometer and you have to stop at stop signs and red lights and follow speed limits. If you are powering yourself, it’s a bit more understandable that you don’t want to stop and start at every intersection. (Though if you have a racing bike, I’d reattach the speedometer and speed-limit requirements.)

There’s no meaningful distinction between a race bike and a commuter bike that can be used for the purposes of lawmaking.

Around here, I've never seen an ebike without speedometer, and everyone on the street should respect street signs and red lights. I see no reason to ignore red lights or stop signs just because you're powering yourself.

I live in a small town with no lights, only stop signs. Everyone yields to bicycles and no one expects them to stop at intersections. Not really relevant to the majority of places though.

Teenagers do dangerous things on normal bicycles too. The nearest I have ever come to an accident with a bicycle while driving (in the UK) was a teenager shooting out at high speed across the road from behind a parked van. Having cyclists sharing space with pedestrians is made worse by ebikes (which are effectively mopeds or motorbikes) but is a real problem with pedal bikes too in some places.

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