If an ebike can go fast enough riding in regular car lanes shouldn't be too much of an issue. It wouldnt be any more dangerous than driving a motorcycle.

The main reason bikes don't do well in car lanes is because they can't keep up with the flow of traffic typically and cause cars to pile up behind them and then people get impatient and aggressive.

An ebike that can go 50-60kph would basically just be a motorcycle in traffic that could then slip into a bike lane when traffic gets bad.

Weird you missed another key distinction: testing, licensing, and associated age restrictions.

At these speeds they're electric motorcycles. They should be treated accordingly (and I say that as an avid cyclist who's incredibly supportive of e-bikes).

Why not just classify them as mopeds? Mopeds have been around for ages, started out as motorized bicycles, are limited to around 28mph, and have standard age, and license requirements. You have to get a license, and plates. I think there is an insurance requirement also.

I feel like applying all the same guidelines to e-bikes would go a long way to resolve the chaos they have been causing.

Obviously there would need to be some new parameters around what exactly qualifies and all that.

In some ways speed is an issue, for instance if you could go the same speed as the rest of the traffic you could avoid situations where you're biking on a tiny strip on the edge of the road and cars pass you very close, by staying in the middle of the road instead. Of course just adding adequate bike lanes would be the better solution since then you wouldn't have any safety downsides for going slower.

Cars are fitted with speed limiters and have been for a long time. 160km/h - 165km/h is typical for cars to stop accelerating at.

It's illegal to ride on sidewalks at all. No new law needed for that.

The speed is fine, the stopping power is the problem. Like the musclecar guys with 50s front drum brakes. 😕

They have been banned in the CBD of my city because they are ridden on footwaths plenty and after numerous collision injuries someone was killed by an electric scooter. They are need to be regulated, licenced and only ridden on the road/cycle paths if they go that fast (whilst also being practically silent mind you).

I get annoyed by them all the time because people rip them around in places you wouldn't take a car, and they're getting powerful enough to be dangerous. Still, the potential is huge. They use so much less space, infrastructure, and energy than cars. They're also significantly cheaper.

Should be the same licence requirements and insurance as a limited speed motorcycle (must be under 50cc) which are limited to 70 km/hr.

That also seems really slow, to me.

On a modest downhill on my POS rusty mountain bike, I'm pretty sure I get up to about 50 km/h, and can go the speed of traffic. I sometimes need to brake so I don't pass cars! On an efficient road bike, I imagine I could sustain speeds above 32 km/h on level roads, too.

I just looked it up, and indeed: 1 km cycle speeds of 40+ km/h are fairly pedestrian.

A 32 km/h level-ground limit seems really slow.

I am an experienced (adult) driver, cycle defensively, about major roads, drive according to conditions, etc., so I know how to use roads safely. If I had one of these, I imagine I would be really frustrated to be going slower than I could cycling, so I'd probably disable the limiter myself, too—but I wouldn't be going north of 50 on any bike, electric or not.

Going highway speeds on a bicycle is insanity, regardless of age. And children shouldn't be operating motor vehicles at all. (Well, aside from walking- or jogging-speed toys, not on roads). But 32 km/h seems overly restrictive, and inviting non-compliance.