As if dozens of bros on dirt bikes and quads roaming about weren’t enough, you have these dumb kids getting their hands on souped-up “e-bikes” where pedals are but an afterthought. These hellions are giving other e-bike riders, including people relying on pedal assist, a bad rep.

You’re not really a “cyclist” if a motor is doing a bunch of the work. That’s the equivalent of those mopeds we had in the ‘70s that you could pedal, too. Probably went 35-40 mph. Nobody in their right mind would call them bicycles or call the riders cyclists. It’s a motorized bike.

I mean if it drives the speed of a motorcycle and is powered like one, it should be registered.

Butttt watch the state overzealously use this to track all the bicyclists. Can’t have those pesky bikers moving around without the law knowing now can we

As a cyclist, I’m all for e-bikes requiring a license.

Most e-bikes in my area are ridden by people who can’t get a driver’s license. This includes people underage, people with their license revoked, and people who have restrictions on their licenses.

And people regularly remove the regulators on those bikes, making them unsafe on the roads.

Meanwhile, they’re also tearing up the mountain bike trails I normally ride on my pedal bike. Many of the people riding these have zero traffic safety training, zero trail etiquette, and zero interest in cooperating with others.

Last week at dusk I had what looked like a 13 year old riding his bike behind me in city traffic, doing a wheelie. Eventually he swerved around me to cross oncoming traffic and hop up onto the sidewalk on the other side of the street so he could avoid an intersection.

Sure, there’s probably plenty of well behaved e-bike riders out there, but the volume of unsafe ones I’ve seen over the past month is insane.

Good, they’re great technology. Regulation and legislation will allow them to be used safely resulting in fewer cars on the road.

I’m a bicyclist and I think this is not a bad idea. Class 3 e-bikes have engines which can accelerate to a top speed of nearly 50 km/h which makes them practically slow motorcycles at that point. A collision between a pedestrian and an e-bike accelerated to top speed will send at least one person to the hospital. And the risk of cyclists who blatantly flaunt traffic laws is also present, even though most people in my city tend to follow the law. There’s a bike path in my city which is used as both a commuter route and a recreational route, and some people ride their e-bikes at crazy speeds just centimetres away from children riding their tricycles.

What I wouldn’t support is the extra paperwork burden. Opponents of this law are right when they say that it should be made easier to switch from driving to using an e-bike, not harder. But minimal registration formalities are probably fine, as long as they are made relatively easy. Maybe something like a registration plate which is affixed at the factory and which you have to register using the DMV website or an app. This would also make tracking down stolen bikes easier.

Pretty sensible. Brings things nearly in line with EU regs. Personally though I think 20mph is just about right as a limit without really upsetting people. It’s 15.6mph here and I just don’t see the point using one if I can ride faster on most terrain under my own steam.

Why are they capping wattage as well as speed? Is it important to the Canadian government that people must be unable to climb hills?

What a stupid idea.