The introduction of e-bikes has been interesting to watch. The first ones I heard about were very much based on modifying an existing bicycle or were purpose-built using a "normal" bicycle frame. You know, something like this:
I haven't seen too many of this style of e-bike. It is possible I haven't noticed them precisely because they look like bikes. What I have seen are tons of these:
Although these things have pedals, they of course are not bicycles. They do, however, qualify as a "Power Assisted Bicycle" under Ontario law. Also by law, they are not capable of going faster than 32km/h (or 20 MPH for my American friends). Riders of such vehicles don't require licenses and must abide by the same laws as bicyclists. For more on Ontario laws regarding E-Scooters, this page is pretty good.
It seems to me that the riders of these things abide by the laws about as well as cyclists do, which is pretty poorly in many cases... you see some on the sidewalk, some salmoning in the bike lane, some on the multi-use pathways (I don't know what our local laws say about that), some on the street and only very rarely have I seen somebody taking the lane on one except to turn left and sometimes not even then. I have seen a great many hugging the gutter like crazy. One reason for this may be how slow some of them are, which is really really slow when their batteries are running low. I know that for myself, the slower I'm going, the greater my feeling (misguided or not) that I must get out of the way, particularly on 2-lane streets.
I love E-Scooters because motorists seem to hate them even more than they hate me on my good old Rantwick-assisted bicycle. Normally my conversations with other people about cycling with cars go pretty well. Sometimes we have to agree to disagree. Not any longer! Now when those conversations get even a little contentious my motoring counterpart will usually say, "you know what I really hate though? Those little electric scooter things!" Whether the e-scooter craze will continue is an unknown, so I intend to enjoy this vacation from top spot in the annoying-to-motorists category while I can. Thank you, e-scooterers! Whir On, baby. Whir on.
R A N T W I C K 