[OldRidgeback]

The Guardian has a good piece on e-bikes, e-mopeds and e-motorcycles:

Britain’s illegal e-bike boom:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/sep/04/britains-e-bike-boom-desperation-delivery-drivers-and-unthinkable-danger

Topic

[chrisonabike]

Yes. And the numbers are the
Yes. And the numbers are the numbers of deaths and we care about them.

But when looking at “what / how we address that” … don’t forget that PACTS graph is the raw numbers and is not corrected for numbers of vehicles. Or better “exposure to the danger”. They’ve tried that with another chart showing deaths per billion passenger miles. Of course then there’s the different places each vehicle is used to consider).

Plus of course we also care about injuries (people simply don’t want to be hit) and a collision with an electric (motor)bike may be more likely to cause more serious injuries than a non-assisted one. *Speed* of collision contributes most to the energy. Even very chunky e-things weight less than a human. Compared to that with a bus or lorry crushing is definitely a mode of injury.

[David9694]

Ford shows me another one

Ford shows me another one they’ve just impounded; it looks more like a motorbike than a bicycle. He invites me to lift up one end to feel the weight of it. 

“Imagine if that hit you – or a child – at 30, 40mph.” The fastest one they’ve seized was capable of 70mph.

Very little need to imagine that – just pick up any local newspaper. 

[Author]

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