I Am Going To Buy an Electric Bike To Annoy Old People

With declining driving skills, we have enough to deal with other than those people on electric bicycles pretending to exercise

Photo by Heybike on Unsplash

I can hear the groans now. Here is another old man’s rant about the ever-popular electric bicycle craze. No, I don’t want to take away your freedom to ride whatever you like, even risking your life without a helmet. What I do object to is your refusal to follow laws.

The city where I live, St. Petersburg, Florida, strives to become more bicycle-friendly. Street space is removed from cars and is now dedicated to bicycles, or at least shared. That’s fine. But when is a bicycle, not a bicycle?

While researching the applicable laws, I discovered three electronic (e-) bike categories.

1. “Class 1 electric bicycle” means an electric bicycle equipped with a motor that provides assistance only when the rider is pedaling and ceases to assist when the electric bicycle reaches the speed of 20 miles per hour.
2. “Class 2 electric bicycle” means an electric bicycle equipped with a motor that may be used exclusively to propel the bicycle and that ceases to assist when the bicycle reaches a speed of 20 miles per hour.
3. “Class 3 electric…