Electric Bike or Electric Motorcycle?

Every evening, untold thousands of New Yorkers get dinner delivered by electric bike riders, but those vehicles are technically illegal. NYPD officers have been ticketing deliverymen even though lunch at NYPD HQ gets delivered by e-bikes.

The root problem is definition: when is a bike not a bike? When does a “power-assisted bike” become a moped, motorscooter, or motorcycle? And when do electric 2-wheeler riders need operator licenses? As with e-commerce, ridehail, Airbnb, and consumer drones, lawmakers are fighting a rearguard action after technology got well ahead of regulation, and it’s hitting New Yorkers where they eat. Ironically, NYC says it will let UPS make deliveries by ebike.

More:

“Electric Bikes Are Blurring The Line Between Bicycles And Motorcycles,” Matt Brown, Jalopnik

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Police: No Scooters at the Capitol

Bird, Lyft, Skip, Spin and Jump. No that’s not a new Olympic field event, those are the companies inflicting dockless electric scooters on pedestrians in the District of Columbia. But not at the Capitol, says US Capitol Police spokesperson Eva Malecki:

“The proliferation of electric scooters and other motorized devices for rent has become a safety and security concern for the Department. They should not be parked and/or left unattended on Capitol Grounds.”

“We have been working to better educate users of the restrictions for using and/or parking scooters on Capitol Grounds as well as the various companies that make them available to the public.”

“Scooter commuters of Capitol Hill, take note,” Katherine Tully-McManus, Roll Call

Updates:

“Eleanor Holmes Norton says let them scoot!” Clyde McGrady, The Hill

“Transportation lawmakers race scooters in House office building,” Rachel Frazin, The Hill

Related:

“Overnight e-scooter ban and complaint line proposed in DC,” Zeke Hartner, WTOP

Paris clamps down on electric scooters as law of the jungle rules,” Forrest Crellin, Reuters

“River patrol pulls e-scooters from bottom of Willamette River,” KATU

“US cities are joining forces to figure out what the hell to do with all these scooters,” Andrew J. Hawkins, The Verge

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Image (“Wayward Scooter, Pennsylvania Avenue SE”) by Mike Licht. Download copies here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com.

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.