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Britain’s illegal e-bike boom: desperation, delivery drivers – and unthinkable danger
(www.theguardian.com)
The horror, and yet cars that can do 200km/hr are legal
this post was submitted on 15 Oct 2025
26 points (96.4% liked)
micromobility - Bikes, scooters, boards: Whatever floats your goat, this is micromobility
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micromobility is seen as a potential solution to moving people more efficiently around cities"
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Paint some different colored lines on the roads, that'll fix it.
If they go faster than the e-bike limit (which may be low, but that's the current law) they are defacto unregistered, probably unlicensed motorbikes on cycle paths, often driven recklessly, no need for new laws, just enforce the current ones. This will increase adoption of e-bikes and acoustic bikes as people will be safe using the infrastructure.
unthinkable danger
This phrasing is so very telling of a moral panic.
Oh my God the way cops talk about ebikes here you'd think they had fentanyl in them or emitted Havana Syndrome rays. They must be a thousand times worse about it in the UK.
Maybe make legal ones easier to get? More cycle lanes? Allow them uber drivers to sit a test so they know how to use the overpowered ones? Then it becomes less dangerous
I mean nothing stops Uber drivers from getting a moped license.
The bikes are cheaper than a moped
Because they are illegal mopeds. Manufacturing them is cheaper when they don't have to use money to pass any of the safety regulations and requirements of actual mopeds.
Oh good another alarmist panic article about how ebikes are a 'super duper danger apocalypse going to murder your child' level threat because they go 20mph or whatever.
That kid on a surron without pedals and a 8kw motor is not riding an ebike, its an offroad motorcycle, I wish politicians and the news would get that right for once.
Oh, it's another day and the Guardian is writing yet another hit piece on electric bikes.
its actually an issue though, I ride an e-assist that you need to pedal w a top speed of 25kph. kids, like 13 year old looking kids BURN past me without pedaling on an electric motorcycle in the bike lane.
its good people are using ebikes, yes, but its not good that people are driving electric motorcycles without training or insurance.
If you think e-bikes are unthinkably dangerous, wait until you hear about cars
Put the blame on the horrible companies (Uber Eats) and not on the drivers, that barely make enough money to live.
tHiNk oF tHE chILdREn
They just want ppl to get a loicense