Scheme to take control of ebikes in urban areas

flecc

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Benjahmin

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Hang on, what about yer average family saloon that's capable of 120mph?
Why the focus on e-bikes when even delivery vans are capble of exceeding national speed limits, let alone urban ones.
Seems like it's just how to kill the urban e-bike market with one very expensive, tax payer funded, stroke.
 
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sjpt

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This is principally a problem they created by allowing the S class high speed e-bikes on their cycling routes. They are assisted at up to 28mph so cutting that would be good in congested areas.
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It shows why it would be such a bad idea to change the legal pedalecs limit in the UK
 

flecc

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Oct 25, 2006
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Hang on, what about yer average family saloon that's capable of 120mph?
Why the focus on e-bikes when even delivery vans are capble of exceeding national speed limits, let alone urban ones.
But they don't do 120 mph on the cyclepaths.

They are traceable.

They are insured.

They have qualified and licenced drivers.
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Swizz

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Hang on, what about yer average family saloon that's capable of 120mph?
Why the focus on e-bikes when even delivery vans are capble of exceeding national speed limits, let alone urban ones.
Seems like it's just how to kill the urban e-bike market with one very expensive, tax payer funded, stroke.
I understand your point but the reason their cycle instrastructure exists as it does today is because they campaigned for it in the face of rising child fatalities on regular roads. It has proven to be so safe is that it has provided a low speed alternative to regular roads.
Kids cycle to school & in urban areas over there from a very young age because it is safe to do so.
Speed pedalecs & mopeds are a fly in the ointment.
 

Nealh

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Nearly all the deaths being reported are for male over 65's, most accidents I believe are caused by off's and not collisions. I expect even if they were push bikes deaths would still occur even at relatively the same speed.
 
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flecc

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Nearly all the deaths being reported are for male over 65's, most accidents I believe are caused by off's and not collisions. I expect even if they were push bikes deaths would still occur even at relatively the same speed.
You are probably right since the Dutch authorities report that 40% of their circa 200 annual cycling deaths have long involved no other vehicle. So it's easy to believe that the reported 57 of those 80 deaths involve e-bikes since they've been increasingly dominating bike sales there for several years now.

In the last three years alone there an e-bike had been bought for every 17 persons of the population of any age, and they were selling strongly in all the previous years since the millennium. Before WW2 in the 1930s e-bikes from Dutch electrical giant Philips et al and others powered by Heinzmann were a normal sight among commuters in Dutch cities. It was another half century before the first rare consumer models appeared here in the early 1980s.
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mike killay

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You are probably right since the Dutch authorities report that 40% of their circa 200 annual cycling deaths have long involved no other vehicle. So it's easy to believe that the reported 57 of those 80 deaths involve e-bikes since they've been increasingly dominating bike sales there for several years now.

In the last three years alone there an e-bike had been bought bought for every 17 persons of the population of any age, and they were selling strongly in all the previous years since the millennium. Before WW2 in the 1930s e-bikes from Dutch electrical giant Philips et al and others powered by Heinzmann were a normal sight among commuters in Dutch cities. It was another half century before the first rare consumer models appeared here in the early 1980s.
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vfr400

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Firstly, that's a Guardian article. You can take it with a pinch of salt. If you read it carefully, you'll see that it's full of errors, so the writer hasn't much idea of what they're writing about and probably got his facts mixed up or misunderstood what he was told.

Secondly, the main contention is that 65 ebikers died in a year, most of them being over the age of 65. Do you think it was them darting about out of control on speed pedelecs? If you do, you must be a Guardian reader.

It's flat in Holland, so the difference in speed between electric and non electric bikes isn't going to be a lot (excluding S-pedelecs), so whoever came up with this idea is either not thinking straight or has a crooked deal going down somewhere.

How are they going to add such a device to old Wispers and their equivalents, and even the present generation of Bosch and Shimano bikes? There are millions of ebikes used in Holland. Are the owners of these bikes going to be prevented from using them until they get some device fitted? I don't think so, even if it was possible in the present locked Bosch system.

Let's say they make a rule that all new bikes must be fitted with the device. Won't that kill the market for new bike sales and boost the market for repairing current ones? Who will buy an ebike, that has it's power suddenly cut when riding in a city, not city dwellers, that's for sure?

In summary, it's just some pie in the sky academic exercise that the Guardian has misrepresented into a typical scare story for clicks and advertising revenue.
 

mike killay

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Feb 17, 2011
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Firstly, that's a Guardian article. You can take it with a pinch of salt. If you read it carefully, you'll see that it's full of errors, so the writer hasn't much idea of what they're writing about and probably got his facts mixed up or misunderstood what he was told.

Secondly, the main contention is that 65 ebikers died in a year, most of them being over the age of 65. Do you think it was them darting about out of control on speed pedelecs? If you do, you must be a Guardian reader.

It's flat in Holland, so the difference in speed between electric and non electric bikes isn't going to be a lot (excluding S-pedelecs), so whoever came up with this idea is either not thinking straight or has a crooked deal going down somewhere.

How are they going to add such a device to old Wispers and their equivalents, and even the present generation of Bosch and Shimano bikes? There are millions of ebikes used in Holland. Are the owners of these bikes going to be prevented from using them until they get some device fitted? I don't think so, even if it was possible in the present locked Bosch system.

Let's say they make a rule that all new bikes must be fitted with the device. Won't that kill the market for new bike sales and boost the market for repairing current ones? Who will buy an ebike, that has it's power suddenly cut when riding in a city, not city dwellers, that's for sure?

In summary, it's just some pie in the sky academic exercise that the Guardian has misrepresented into a typical scare story for clicks and advertising revenue.
So true.
It is no wonder that people are turning away from the Press and BBC now that they have access to the internet and can find out things for themselves without any spin.
Knowing the press, I expect to find the next article full of praise for ebikes because Comrade Corbyn or the like has endorsed them.
 

mike killay

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Feb 17, 2011
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You are probably right since the Dutch authorities report that 40% of their circa 200 annual cycling deaths have long involved no other vehicle. So it's easy to believe that the reported 57 of those 80 deaths involve e-bikes since they've been increasingly dominating bike sales there for several years now.

In the last three years alone there an e-bike had been bought bought for every 17 persons of the population of any age, and they were selling strongly in all the previous years since the millennium. Before WW2 in the 1930s e-bikes from Dutch electrical giant Philips et al and others powered by Heinzmann were a normal sight among commuters in Dutch cities. It was another half century before the first rare consumer models appeared here in the early 1980s.
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Perhaps it is a good idea to start an 'Historical' section.
The years are rolling on and I am not too sure that anyone is recording all the differing types of ebikes that are and have been available.
I was amazed to find the 1930's ebikes, I bet there may have been even earlier examples.
 
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flecc

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Perhaps it is a good idea to start an 'Historical' section.
The years are rolling on and I am not too sure that anyone is recording all the differing types of ebikes that are and have been available.
I was amazed to find the 1930's ebikes, I bet there may have been even earlier examples.
The first production e-bike item was the Heinzmann hub motor in 1922, that triggering Philips attempts from 1923 on.

But working prototypes date from the 1890s.

Of course it was always lead acid batteries that held back progress until NiCads were invented.
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