Josh Freed: I've had e-nough of irresponsible e-bike and e-scooter use

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There’s a rising menace to Montreal cyclists, and for a change it’s not simply automobiles.

It’s additionally different bikes, together with e-bikes, e-scooters, e-roller blades, e-hoverboards, e-unicycles and different new e-wheeled  contraptions.

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They’re turning our streets and bike paths into over-crowded, two-wheel E-xpressways, bursting with rushing visitors. It’s all making many long-time cyclists nervous, together with BikeJosh.

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I used to be biking residence from a night present not too long ago on the downtown De Maisonneuve Blvd. bike path. Nevertheless it was so full of shadow-hidden potholes, together with e-cyclists, Bixis, scooters and e-scooters — some with no lights — I fled for quieter Sherbrooke St. the place I felt safer amongst our metropolis’s motorists than my fellow cyclists.

Largely it’s an issue of our metropolis’s cyclo-maniacal success. Montreal has lengthy led all different North American cities in bike paths, Bixis and bike enthusiasm.

This regardless of the very fact we’re one of many coldest, snowiest cities anyplace and will focus on icicle paths not bicycle paths. However as ever extra individuals check out two-wheel transport, biking right here’s getting zanier and scarier.

Clearly 2,000-kilogram fast-moving automobiles are nonetheless probably the most harmful risk to fragile bikes, particularly on streets like Parc Ave. the place cyclists get squeezed into harmful heavy visitors.

However these risks at the moment are aggravated by pothole-pocked, over-crowded bike paths, full of an array of rushing e-contraptions that won’t at all times qualify as bikes.

The state of affairs isn’t helped by many beginner younger e-cyclists who want fundamental Biking 101 classes.

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The entire continent has not too long ago begun emulating Montreal’s biking success, however how can our metropolis sustain with its personal success?

E-nlarged paths: Our decades-old bike paths really feel virtually prehistoric. They’re too slender for right now’s jam-packed  biking visitors, the place mothers toting children to daycare should squeeze by rushing e-bikes, e-scooters and typically mini-motorcycles coming the wrong way, inches away.

Shared e-scooter leases have been briefly banned right here, however have now turn into so common in all places town not too long ago  approved a three-year trial interval, with speeds restricted to 25 km/h.

However as e-scooter visitors explodes right here and worldwide, there’s discuss of “scootergeddon” in lots of cities.

In a current referendum, Paris massively voted towards preserving shared e-scooters, partly due to accidents from reckless driving.

Will Montreal finally want separate e-scooter paths, adopted by e-unicycle paths?

The dizzying array of latest e-vehicles clearly wants extra street house. However the right way to discover it with out taking an excessive amount of extra away from pissed off motorists, already trapped between potholed streets and orange-coned rues barrées?

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We don’t need a motorist backlash battle like those that divided and held again biking in Toronto and different cities.

E-bike or motorcar? The explosion in electrical bikes is engaging many individuals onto two wheels for the primary time. Most of those e-bikes require some pedalling and belong on bike paths.

However some e-vehicles haven’t any pedals, highly effective motors and look very similar to motor scooters. Typically a motorbike is only a bike and belongs on the street.

Newb-E-s: Aggravating the state of affairs are novice e-bike riders. It takes months of driving classes and checks to function a automotive  however nearly anybody can hop on a motorized two-wheeler with out coaching — and currently many are.

Final month I used to be biking down my block, leaving a small security hole between me and the parked automobiles on my proper, to keep away from  being “doored” by an rising driver.

Immediately, a youngster on an e-bike blasted by on my proper, squeezing by means of the tiny hole between me and the parked automobiles — with out even a customary warning cry.

She brushed my arm and I nearly toppled over, however she sped on oblivious.

As CarJosh too, I’ve had nerve-wracking shut calls with fast-moving e-vehicles swerving throughout my path in the dead of night, their drivers typically clad in black, forcing me to slam on my brakes.

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Within the U.S., “junior” motorized e-bikes at the moment are being marketed for youngsters as younger as 5, with names like eKid, that many fear are mini-motorcycles for youngsters.

Luckily we’re not there in Montreal, however e-vehicles do have many grey zones on the subject of licensing and velocity restrict enforcement.

We Quebec motorists have been as soon as reckless cowboys who weaved from lane to lane. However many years of coaching and ticketing have made most drivers respectful of cyclists, and given Quebecers the second lowest automotive fatality fee in Canada.

But not all e-cyclists are as courteous to their biking brethren. I’m undecided what our squads of cops-on-bikes do, however I hardly ever see them patrolling our bike paths. Maybe they may implement some e-biking guidelines whereas cruising round too.

How about handing out some tickets to rushing e-vehicles, particularly motor scooters that don’t belong on bike paths.   Additionally to these meals couriers with one hand on the handlebar and the opposite texting — or scrolling their telephones, looking for their subsequent pizza shopper’s tackle on their GPS maps.

The bike and e-vehicle revolution is a superb step towards  getting extra automobiles off the street, particularly in hotter Montreal months.

Let’s embrace our metropolis’s love affair with two wheels, however take a few of the mania out of our cyclomania.

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