EBikes have 2 levels of performance-20mph & 28mph. Also they weigh more than a unmotorized bike–60-85lbs.
in just May and June of this year, Connecticut Children’s treated more than 24 kids in the emergency department for e-bike injuries. That’s already more than the total number we saw during the entire three-month period of May to July in 2024—and July isn’t even over yet.
*Since e-bikes became more accessible, he claims more kids have been coming in with injuries. *
“Above all it’s head injuries, which are the most dangerous and that’s usually due to not wearing a helmet,” Flaherty explained. “And then it’s a lot of extremity injuries broken limbs, road rash injuries just from the impact of falling and going that fast.”
“In the emergency department, the number is quoted over the past four or five years have been close to 50,000 emergency department visits for e-bike related injuries across the United States,” he said.
Personally I [74 year old geezer tj] believes there should be a minimum age requirement [16 years old] to ride an eBike.
Just a minute. I have to go outside to yell at a kid:“GET OFF MY LAWN!”
OK that’s done.
I question the intelligence of a parent allowing their kid to use such a dangerous toy.
I think eBikes are great for a mature person. Especially for urban traffic crowded cities. Get folks out of their cars and on an eBike. Cut pollution and get some exercise.
Not even parents. I question the intelligence of many supposed adults riding them. They act like traffic rules do not apply to them. I despise them just because they seem to attract idiots.
Speaking as someone who has a permanent facial palsy thanks to being run over by an Oldsmobile on a city street, I beg to differ.
Yes a lot of improvements have been made since that happened to me in 1984, not the least of which is the appearance of helmets. But also bike lanes, especially “protected bike lanes” by moving the parked cars out to create an exclusive lane between the cars and curb, but even so, there is a LOT of danger in urban settings.
I was in Boston/Cambridge a couple weeks ago, one of the more progressive cities when it comes to biking, and there is still danger everywhere, bike lanes or not. It’s physics: the mass of a car running into the mass of a bicyclist is an immutable recipe for injury to one, and hardly ever the other.
I’m in favor of more, but also cognizant of the real problems created when you try to make a car culture country change to other modes after-the-fact.
Taxes being used to build and maintain all roadways everywhere so as to accomodate huge (HUGE) heavy passenger cars mostly conveying single commuters while putting pedestrians and cyclists at great risk is the result of big money stealing the public streets from the public way way way back in time, and keeping the fraudlent conveyence going with ever more grievance and stupidity.
I have always (since age 7 or so) been enraged by this. So please , don’t get me started .
In my area, converted rail trails are labeled as non-motorized vehicle pathways. But e-bikes are a common sight on them. Most e-bike riders that I see are riding with common courtesy, but there are of course a few idiots. I’ve seen them blow by 4 year olds who are weaving all over the trail. So the damage that they can do to other cyclists, while not as bad as a car, is pretty dangerous.
I don’t complain about the motorized bike being on the non motorized bike path, as long as they ride safe. That genie is out of the bottle anyways, e-bikes are not going away, and the tourist areas located near the central bike path most definitely want their business. Can go to wineries, or brew pub a short distance off of the pathway. I never do it while pedal biking because I have a huge hill to climb to get back home, but I can see how it might be fun on an e-bike. And I’ve yet to see a cop on the bike trail,lol.
, don’t get me started 
.