[johnwalkr]

Making different rules depending on the class of e-bikes make sense vs just pretending all e-bikes are "bikes" and allowed everywhere bikes are, even though at some point they are more akin to motorcycles.

In Europe this is mostly working well, although depending on the country there are still a lot of illegal (heavy, fast, throttle-equipped, unlicensed, beyond even class 3) bikes on the roads, bike lanes and bike paths.

One benefit is that when you go to buy an e-mountain bike in Europe, the ones for sale are all class 1, and everyone understands only class 1 are legal and allowed on most mountain bike trails. In America nobody cares about class and many just buy the fastest, crappiest model that comes with a "class 1" sticker as well as a setting to bypass all the class 1 limitations. As a result, there are more and more blanket bans on all e-bikes on mountain bike trails in America.

[tonyedgecombe]

>In Europe this is mostly working well, although depending on the country there are still a lot of illegal (heavy, fast, throttle-equipped, unlicensed, beyond even class 3) bikes on the roads, bike lanes and bike paths.

There were a lot of these in Oxford (UK) until a year or two ago when they all got replaced with scooters[1]. I suspect the police started clamping down on the illegal e-bikes which are easy to spot.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scooter_(motorcycle)