New Jersey has a new law for e-bikes that is so restrictive it borders on absurdity. The bill is so bad its created headlines around the cycling world, reportedly faced near-universal opposition as it was being debated and is, depending who you ask, wildly impractical to actually implement. So, there are lots of problems specifically with the law.
Regulatory confusion
The first problem for cyclists outside of New Jersey, I think, is that explaining why it is so bad is wildly confusing. I started to try when I went to write this story and now I have about 20 tabs open in my browser and I, a person who a couple hours ago would have told you I’m relatively confident in understanding e-bike regulations, am more confusing than ever.
Since we are called Canadian Cycling Magazine, I started by trying to compare the New Jersey law to Canadian regulations. Only, those regulations are different in every province. As far as I can tell, B.C. no longer even uses the three-class designation that everyone seems so mad that New Jersey moved away from. Instead, there are two different versions of what would, anywhere else, be a Class 1 e-bike. Or Class 1 and 2, they seem to be merged into “standard e-bike). And, Class 3? Seems to be just a motor vehicle. Ontario doesn’t have the same division.
E-bikes are new, and constantly changing. Writing good regulations is hard. I’m sure we could all figure this out together. But …
Opening a can of worms, then throwing worms everywhere and mushing them around a bunch
OK, so the existing regulations are confusing. But that’s just the start of the problem. Say you take the time to understand the regulations. Your next step is to understand which bikes fall under which category. This is when everything turns into a giant mess. And that, I’d argue, is on purpose.
To be clear, there are a whole bunch of very responsible bike companies that are making e-bikes of all kinds that clearly and intentionally fit quite nicely into the three-class system. Or into whatever the local version of that system is.
There are many companies taking a different tact, though. There are more than enough brands that are being intentionally vague about their e-bikes capabilities so that they can squeeze into a lower class. Because lower classes have fewer regulations. Some brands are being vague. Some brands are being outright deceptive.
No, I don’t care that a lot of these deceptive brands are from “outside the mainstream cycling industry.” Because who cares? Who, when writing or regulating e-bikes, is going to care that some brands are being responsible if there are just as many e-bikes on the road that are from “outside” the tight-knit circle of legacy responsible brands?
And also, the legacy brands are not all being responsible. Not even close. (This is the part, I am aware, where I’m going to annoy a lot of readers).
Meeting regulations vs intentionally deceptive
Two consistent points of regulation between Ontario and B.C. are speed and power output. The lower class bikes are limited to providing assistance only up to 32 km/h. That is to say that, once you hit 32 km/h, you’re on your own to try go faster. This one is fairly easy to understand. It is consistent with most U.S. regulations.
Then there’s power output. In Ontario: an e-bike has “an electric motor not exceeding 500 watts.” In B.C., there’s more wiggle room. B.C. limits “maximum continuous power output” to 500 watts. What’s the difference, you ask? “Maximum continuous power (nominal power) is the power output that a motor can sustain for long periods of time without overheating.” Most U.S. states tend to limit Class 1 to 750 watts.
Why is that important? Well, the last three or four e-mtb I tested (at least, that’s just the last few I can remember) all claim to be Class 1 but all have a maximum power output over 500W. Two of them double that, using the Avinox motor that has a 1,000W maximum output.
How is that legal? Well, that’s where the wiggle room in B.C.’s continuous output comes in. Avinox limits that 1,000W to 60 seconds. So it’s technically not continuous. To be honest, after looking at regulations for a few hours, I have no idea how any Avinox bike is legal in Ontario. But I know there are plenty of them on the roads, bike lanes, paths and trails in Ontario.
And, to be clear, the Avinox motor is not the only e-bike motor capable of well over 500 W. And Avinox and other mega-powerful motors are being used by mainstream brands.
Worms everywhere
The problem isn’t just over-powered Class 1 e-bikes, though. As I whined above, it’s that this intentional blurring of categories is happening at every level of bike. And that is really confusing for anyone to understand, even if you’re trying quite hard to.
The more brands blur the lines between Class 1 and Class 2, and Class 2 and Class 3 (or whatever the local distinctions are titled), the more e-bikes blur into a single category of “things with two wheels and an electric motor.” So, while it seems absurd to call a Surron or electric motor bike a Class 1 e-bike (it would be absurd to do that), if we lose, or intentionally blur, clear distinctions between categories, people stop caring. And when you’re buzzed or cut off by enough “things with two wheels and an electric motor” you’re going to stop caring about trying really hard to understand those distinctions. While that totally sucks for me, a person who really likes carting his toddler children around on an e-cargo bike instead of loading them into a car (they like it a lot more too, for what its worth), it’s also totally understandable.
But, again, it sucks for those of us that really like alternative transport with an electric assist.
Whose to blame? What’s the fix?
Ah man, I don’t know! Fixing all this is the hard part. I’m just complaining on the internet about laws in a state a continent away from my desk.
And we should all complain. The N.J. law is terrible.
But if we, as cyclists, don’t also start looking at why more laws like this (though less extreme) are popping up, we’re probably going to get screwed in the long run. It’s already hitting a tipping point in places outside New Jersey. The tiny, bike-crazed singletrack Mecca of mountain biking, Squamish, B.C. is embroiled in a growing dispute over teens riding around on various electric-powered bikes.
Who is to blame for this? Everyone, buddy. The brands doing their best to skirt or blur e-bike categories so they can sell more bikes. The people buying bikes they (probably) know are skirting e-bike regulation. And a lot of the demand for those bikes is consumer driven, even if you, personally, don’t want that bike. And, 1,100 words into a rant about e-bikes, I’m quite aware I’m probably preaching to the choir, not a pack of Surron riders, at this point. Regulators that don’t care, enforcement bodies that haven’t been enforcing existing regulations. The list is long, and probably doesn’t stop there.
If we want to take the I Think You Should Leave skit above literally, it’s not just one hot dog car that’s into the big e-bike party. There’s hot dog cars everywhere! But we’re wearing a hot dog-shaped suit, too. If we don’t collectively take this on soon, no one at the party (pedestrians, drivers, etc) is going to care if we start claiming that we’re clearly bratwurst and that is a hot dog car. And there’s going to be more laws like in N.J.