Dangers abound for e-bike riders

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reikiman
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Dangers abound for e-bike riders

Dangers abound for e-bike riders
http://www.windsorstar.com/Dangers+abound+bike+riders/3898141/story.html

This article came up in the news alerts today. It's in the local paper for Windsor Ontario, and goes on and on about e-bikes being more dangerous than regular bikes.

I'm sure that some people here might take exception to this claim.

e.g. what's different about e-bikes than bicycles? Not a lot. Though, the motor might mislead some riders into behaving differently than they would on a non-powered bicycle. Basic factoid is that the bicycle rider is responsible for their own safety, right?

I'm wondering if the article author means "e-bike" to be the scooter bikes? Any idea?

Lock
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Joined: Wednesday, December 1, 2010 - 03:14
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Re: Dangers abound for e-bike riders

Hello David

Yes, scooter-style ebikes... Folks don't EVen "see" the pedal-bike style ebikes, but watt they have been seeing (in Ontario cities) are a flood of the cheap Chineseey scooters which conform to the Fed/Ontario legislations for "power-assisted bicycle" but that have pedals which function like the human appendix (no gearing, lousy ergonomics). They conform to the letter of the law if not perhaps to the spirit of the law...

For that latest Windsor Star article there is no option for readers to add comments, but one day before that article the same reporter published this:
E-bike accidents on the rise in Windsor

Read the [C]omments to that article... 121 and counting...

This scenario has been played out many times in the past with the introduction of new tech. The press sees only an absolute rise in the number of "incidents" and disregard the relative aspects (eg ebike accidents versus car accidents... here in Toronto traffic we see one person killed every 6.4 Days, one person injured Every 30.2 Minutes, one collision every 9.8 Min., one pedestrian injured every 3.93 Hours, one truck collision every 4.53 hours, one cyclist injured every 9.21 Hours...)

Windsor Ontario is sort of a sad place - a recent pole determined Windsorites are the four-unhappiest city in Canada. Some say the best part about Windsor is... Detroit (grin) They are also highly addicted to the car culture, EVen for their employment. So there is high unemployment these daze, and for low incomes, ebikes may be EVen more attractive.

Anywhooo... if yer interested in watts happening in Ontario with ebikes ya can read some of the threads here:
http://www.ebikeriders.com/

Cheers
Lock Hughes

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