Jumping through hoops to please useless bureaucrats is not in my nature. Respect for other people and taking care not to harm them is a different matter, but 15.5 miles an hour? I'm seventy and I can easily do a good bit more than that on the flat.
Firstly that is unfair to the bureacrats who are far from useless. Secondly, like so many in here, you are completely missing the point.
Pedelecs are not electric bicycles, they are electric assist bicycles. They are not about speed, as you remark, you like many can ride much faster than the assist limit on the flat so you don't need assistance to go faster. Pedelecs are about assistance when it is needed such as uphill or against head winds.
The legislators set the speed and power limits where they are because they have to, not because they are useless. Those limits are just before they start to collide with motor vehicle law. Attempt to make the assist speed limit 20 or 25 mph as many want and the Moped manufacturers and dealers start to kick off, demanding they are freed from any bureacracy too.
It's been tried and it's failed. Germany and Switzerland introduced so called speed pedelecs, assisted up to 28 mph (45kph) and later with up to 500 watts rating to help get to those speeds. The Netherlands followed and had to concede to some of the moped demands for equal treatment. The result was chaos and an uproar from cyclists, since their excellent cycle paths were suddenly invaded by not only faster speed pedelecs but also by all the mopeds using the same 28 mph speed limit, scaring the life out of cyclists and causing a jump in accidents.
France had announced that it was going to introduce speed pedelecs a couple of years ago, but when they saw what had happened in The Netherlands they permanently cancelled that plan. Of well over 30 countries throughout Europe, the only other country to have introduced speed pedelecs has been Denmark, but like The Netherlands now, only with additional restrictions.
And in those only four countries still having speed pedelecs, all have to be registered with number plates, third part insurance and compulsory helmet wearing at all times. That's what we can expect if we ever won a higher assist limit, real bureacracy. There's even a driving licence group now for motorised vehicles capable of 25 kph (15.5 mph), it's group Q and it could be applied to us in future
Be content with what you have, it's very unlikely to get better and could get far, far worse.
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