Fuck Cars
A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!
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Over 40 already requires a license. So it sounds like you want enforcement for the people already breaking the law, not a new law punishing people that were following the rules.
I'm a municipal worker and we just had a huge meeting about this. It's a tough nut to Crack, because enforcement of the existing laws are almost impossible, and we're trying to find a solution.
The issue police are having with ebike violations is probable cause. Police can't and shouldn't be allowed to arbitrarily stop someone.
Depending on the classification of ebike (which can't be established visually) there's different rules on whether it has age requirements, whether it's allowed to be used with a throttle instead of pedals, and what the max assisted speed is. They also can't visually verify the bike is under 750 watts or what age the rider is.
And even if they're going over 28mph (max assisted speed on any ebike), that doesn't necessarily mean it's not an ebike. Maybe they're going that fast because they pedaled really hard unassisted or just got off a steep hill.
We have hundreds of kids of all ages in our community essentially riding electric motorcycles all over town and a lot of them are getting hurt, and unless the police see them running a stop sign, they can't do shit. And even then they have a policy not to because chasing a teenager in a bike with a police car isn't going to be safer than ignoring it.
Right now, we're trying to convince the school district (school districts are entirely separate governmetal bodies from cities in our state) to require registration for ebikes kept at the school so they can inspect those bikes to at least verify they're legal and age-check the kids on the class 3 bikes.
Have you considered speedlimits on streets where no vehicle should be doing 40mph? 40 mph around a blind corner on a narrow sidewalk is dangerous whether it's ridden by a 16 year old who bought an electric motorcycle off Aliexpress or Lance Armstrong.
I'm trying to figure out what the problem actually is here. Is it that kids have access to a motor vehicle that can go fast enough to hurt them? Is that the primary issue under discussion? Might be good to treat them how some northern states treat snowmobiles and require a safety certificate that kids can get by doing a drivers ed-type class. Cops don't have to putz around harassing kids for enforcement, just require it be presented to purchase, to get school parking, submitted after a crash, etc. But that should be a state solution, not a municipal one. Schools should be educating kids about safe use, and cities/towns should consider providing safer infrastructure for micromobility. I think the best you can and should be doing is making it as safe as possible, not prohibiting. Real adaptation will require some investment at the state level just like any other class of vehicle. But municipal representatives can encourage acceleration of that process.
Okay - require kids to have a safety certificate. How do you enforce that? E-bikes aren't big, motorized vehicles that have to be registered like snowmobiles. They look like any other bike for the most part.
Cops can't just pull over everyone who looks like they might be a kid because they might be on an e-bike and that e-bike might be a class-3 that might be self-powering while pedaled over 28mph or have a motor over 700 watts and the possible teenage might not have taken a safety certificate.
In Oklahoma no such law exist.
https://thecyclistchoice.com/resources/oklahoma-ebike-laws/
Took me like 5 sec to google, over 28mph or larger than 750w motor is not an ebike and would need to be licensed and registered in OK.