this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2023
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California Wants to Create a Driver’s License for Electric Bikes (electrek.co)
submitted 1 year ago by foobar@lemmy.villa-straylight.social to c/bicycles@lemmy.ca
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The move is in response to many young electric bike riders who often take to the streets without having tested for or received a typical driver’s license for a standard car. That means they are often ignorant of many traffic laws and safety information.

Assembly Bill 530, which will soon enter committee, would require both an online written test and a state-issued identification for riders who do not have a driver’s license. The bill would also ban riders under 12 years old from riding e-bikes.

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[–] kite@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Just last week we had a teenager flying down the sidewalk on one of these. He lost control, wiped out and was fucked up. Last I heard, his prognosis wasn't great. I'd be ok with a license of some sort.

[–] Thecornershop@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm interested to understand how you this a license would.habe prevented this incident? I'm not criticizing you at all, I just think nothing would have been different in that scenario - fast and furious wanna best wrap themselves around telegraph poles all the time and the mostly all had licenses.

[–] kite@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It was a kid driving with zero experience whatsoever. I don't know if he got the e-bike version of the death wobbles or what, but if he'd been required to at least take classes and get his license, he might have been able to save himself. Not to mention he was a kid and too fucking young to be driving one of those things as far as I'm concerned. I'd hope a license would have an age limit.

[–] fatboy93@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

License would've helped them know the rules of the road.

I'm from India, we don't have that many ebikes but we do have a ton of teo-wheeler options. All of them need license and some insurance that covers liability etc.

The place where I lived in India also had mandatory helmet law as well, which were all enforced by the traffic police.

[–] Djtecha@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

Doubt it, 80% of drivers in my city can't even bother to use a turn signal. Laws don't always lead to people following them.