Increase in seizures of illegal ebikes

[ebikeerwidnes]

Why not split the bikes into legal(EAPC compliant) and illegal?
If you're in charge of an illegal vehicle, it should be instantly apparent that you've no license or insurance for the vehicle.

The scooters, might be harder but not impossible. If you've bought it/had it bought for you, it's illegal to use. Even the trial ones have a lower age limit. A limit that doesn't seem to bother those who buy them for their kids. A local school has even put in charging points* for e-bikes and e-scooters, despite the upper age limit at the school being 11. Well below the legal age limits for both.

*Usage is currently under review due to its location, not that they're encouraging the use of illegal vehicles.

Yes - splitting ebikes into legal ones and illegal would be a good start

and should be easy for the people compiling the stats to do

I was just thinking that knowing what percentage of the incidents was by "almost legal" and "totally illegal in all respects" might help "The People" realise where the actual problem is
rather than "all ebikes BAD" that sometimes comes across

 

[albion]

It sounds a pedantic question but I see number of small kids playing on electric scooters.
They don't go very fast (probably about 5 mph at the most) as there more like toys.
I also see young kids on small toy like electric cars in the park with their parents keeping close eye on them a few steps behind.
Technically speaking are these against the law too

Lots of youths persuade their parents to buy them a scouser. The ones the knowledgeable kids choose are easily derestricted, so many scooting past me. Yet, unlike with ebikes most have good safety skills.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Lots of youths persuade their parents to buy them a scouser.

They make great pets when they're small but can be quite a handful when fully grown.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

They make great pets when they're small but can be quite a handful when fully grown.

You beat me to it!!!

 

[mjr]

It's costing us all !

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c05y9pe5p1jo

Drivers are not "us all" and it's costing just £100m of an annual car insurance market of £16.5bn: that's a whopping 0.6%. Tackling the motorists driving around the 28% or so of vehicles without a valid MOT, or the 24% of drivers who can't see well enough to read road signs easily, would probably save insured drivers much more money... but those drivers are customers of the insurers, and the e-motorbike and e-scooter users aren't, so let's focus on the 0.6% of cost not the 20+%s. 🙄

 

[mjr]

Anyway, it seems the police aren't just seizing illegal motorbikes, but they've also started crushing legal e-bikes and disability aids and there's no way to challenge an incorrect seizure quickly enough to prevent the bike being destroyed.

https://www.cyclingelectric.com/news/police-crush-road-legal-e-bike
and
https://wheelsforwellbeing.org.uk/o...-seizure-of-mobility-aids-including-e-cycles/

This is scandalous. Seems a bit like making the police "street judges" from Judge Dredd, doesn't it? What they say goes, punishment is swift, and "appeal denied" in practice, or at least pointless.

The incorrect seizures don't really surprise me because we've challenged Norfolk Police making incorrect statements on social media recently, such as claiming that presence of a throttle is enough to make a bike illegal or that there are limits on battery capacity, as well as implying that the speedometer reading of a lifted back wheel is accurate.

How do we get out of this stupid situation?

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

@Moderators

I started a thread about that - better to merge them???

 

[Dadam]

@Moderators

I started a thread about that - better to merge them???

I think that's a big enough story to deserve it's own thread. Likely to get lost merged into 34 pages of illegal ebike posts.