http://www.nugget.ca/...

Council eyes e-bike rules

By GORD YOUNG The Nugget

Posted 41 minutes ago

Municipal politicians are considering whether or not e-bikes should be permitted on sidewalks and trails.

Coun. Judy Koziol said council will be taking a closer look at the rules e-bike operators should be following after a staff report on the matter was referred to committee Tuesday.

"What rules of the road should they be following?" asked Koziol, referring to the guidelines that need to be considered.

Koziol brought the issue to city staff after fielding numerous complaints from residents about the power-assisted bicycles, especially regarding people operating them on sidewalks and the Kate Pace Way.

Staff presented a report to council Tuesday recommending the city promote the fact that e-bikes are bounded by rules of the road for bicycles under the Highway Traffic Act, with two noted exceptions: Operators must be 16 years of age or older; and all operators must wear an approved bicycle helmet at all times. The report also calls for a link on the city website to the Ministry of Transportation's frequently asked question section for e-bikes.

The report, however, was referred to committee for further discussion.

And in the meantime, Koziol said staff is expected to prepare a more detailed report which will include input from city departments including, parks and recreation and police.

An e-bike must weigh no more than 120 kilograms and must not have a power outage greater than 500 watts and a speed greater than 32 kilometre per hour. A driver's licence in not required, nor is there a written test, vehicle registration, plate or insurance.

E-bikes are allowed to travel anywhere bicycles are permitted, although municipalities have the power prohibit them from roads, sidewalks, bike paths, trails and bike lanes.

"I don't think people are against these bikes," said Koziol, noting most people, including council members, recognize they are economical and environmentally friendly.

But Koziol said most of the complaints she has received have been in regard to safety concerns.

Koziol said she doesn't believe the issue has to be complicated. She suggested e-bikes, which have both pedals and an electric, motor, should be operated on roads when motorized and only permitted on sidewalks or trails when being pedalled.

gyoung@nugget.ca

The report prepared by City of North Bay staff about ebikes is included in the Agenda for the City Council meeting of September 6, here:
http://www.cityofnort...
(It starts on page 46 of this 65 page PDF file.)

Nice email reply from Dave Linkie, Chief Admin Officer for North Bay:

RE: Report on Power-Assisted Bicycles
Friday, September 9, 2011 9:05 AM
From: "Dave Linkie" <Dave.Linkie@cityofnorthbay.ca>
To: "Lock" <lock@yahoo.com>

Good morning Lock. The report is available on-line. You can access it at the City of North Bay Website. If you look at the "Inside City Hall" drop down menu on the home page you will see a link to Agenda and Minutes. Click on that header and scroll down to Full Agendas and click on September 6, 2011. The report is contained there.

I'm somewhat embarrassed to even call it a report. The intended purpose was to get something before City Council in order for them to be able to procedurally speak to the issue. Several Councillors and staff were receiving enquiries as to how power assisted Bicycles were to be treated. I have appended, to the report, a Frequently Asked Questions document provided by the Ontario Ministry of Transportation.

At this point in time Council has not taken any position and staff has been directed to provide more fulsome information.

We are currently treating them as we would any conventional bicycle as is legislated under the Highway Traffic Act.

I have heard various pro's and cons such as they are a reasonably inexpensive means of transportation that help individuals with accessibility challenges. They are also represented as an environmentally friendly way to get around. On the negative side we have had people complain that they do not provide the health benefit of riding a conventional bike at a time when obesity amongst Canadians is at an all time high. They have also been criticized for being heavier than a conventional bike and therefore potentially dangerous in the event of a crash with other cyclist, pedestrians etc.

The only area that seems controversial at this time is the use of power assisted bikes on recreational trails. We are getting some complaints but it may be that they are somewhat unique and people are simply not yet used to them.

I would very much welcome your thoughts.
Please feel free to call me at the number below.

Best regards,

Dave

David G. Linkie

Chief Administrative Officer
City Of North Bay
P.O. Box 360
North Bay On. Canada
P1B 8H8
Phone 705- 474-0626 ext 2400
Fax 705-474-4925
email dave.linkie@cityofnorthbay.ca

-----Original Message-----
From: Lock [mailto:lock@yahoo.com]
Sent: September 8, 2011 7:32 PM
To: Dave Linkie
Subject: Report on Power-Assisted Bicycles

Hello David

I was interested to read that you have recently completed a report for North Bay regarding power-assisted bicycles!

Is there a copy online anywhere please? Or would you mind if I may have a copy as an email attachment? Doc or PDF format etc, no matter!

Regards

Lock

I will read his report and try and reply to Dave today...

Lock

I do not think banning of ebikes is going to solve the obesity epidemic, in North Bay or elsewhere. I get more exercise on an ebike than I do in a car where I do not have to balance and it has power steering. It would be interesting if someone did a study to see if ebiking consumed more calories than dirivng a car. Obviously it does not consume as much calories as propelling a bicycle with muscular power by quite a bit. Banning of MacDonald's and the use of automobiles might produce a better result. Obviously by banning ebikes a segment of the population, particularly the poorer members of society, the infirm and elderly will be denied use of the trails unless they can afford or opt in to use a traditional disability scooter. I assume they are not going to ban those.

I think we can all agree that bicycles, including ebikes do not belong on the sidewalk, except of course children's bicycles, and all should be helmeted, although traditional bicyclists seem to be exempt from the Ontario legislation, while children under 18 and ebikers are not exempt. As to forcing ebikes onto roadways when a bicycle lane is available seems illogical when considering that ebikes have already been legislated as to be treated as a bicycle by the Federal Government and the Ontario Government with additional restrictions as to their use (helmets and other safety equipment).

The division is simple, if it is pedestrian speed (pedestrians, disability scooters, child's bicycles) it should be on the sidewalk with pedestrians having the right of way: if it is bicycle speed (ebikes, bicycles) they belong in the bicycle lane; if automotive speed (cars, trucks, motorcycles) they belong on the roadway.


As far as letting ebikes onto trails, with clear rules of the road and enforcement, if regular bicycles can operate safely on the trails, ebikes can operate safely there too. Usually trails have a 20 kph limit and giving pedestrians right of way and clear instruction would make things safe for all.


I must go into a bike shop and measure bikes and into an ebike retailer and actually measure each. I doubt there would be any difference in the length and width of any of the vehicles. In fact, I suspect the width of the rider's elbows would be the widest part. Showing it on a chart might dispel the myths surrounding the size, or at least give ebike defenders something to point to.

RE: Report on Power-Assisted Bicycles
Friday, September 9, 2011 3:24 PM
From: "Lock" <lock@yahoo.com>
To: "Dave Linkie" <Dave.Linkie@cityofnorthbay.ca>

Hi Dave

THANK YOU for your considered reply, and the link to your report in the Council agenda.

Just to introduce myself, I bought my first ebike ten years ago, and have riden over 20,000km in this time as urban commutes. My real interest is electric VESSELS but I bought my first ebike as a cheap experiment to educate myself about electric vehicles generally (professionally I have wasted my life as an accountant <grin>)

I'm an urban Canadian, having settled in Toronto back in `73. I parked my last car a couple of decades ago about the time my family doctor explained that my two baby daughters had lung problems because of urban "air quality"...

The power-assist on two wheels was a revelation for me. An epiphany really.

And the very first week I had the ebike I was told by a Toronto Police officer that my bike was not legal in Canada...

And this got me wondering. Why I had a commercial product manufactured and sold in the millions every year, and in legal use in many other jurisdictions around the world but not in Ontario?

So I have been advocating for ebikes for ten years now. I stood on the grass outside the Ontario Legislature that rainy day when Transport Minister Donna Cansfield announced that Ontario would go ahead with a three year pilot project for ebikes.

In fact I was introduced to the Minister a couple of years after that and she forgave me my scoff-law behaviour in riding better electrically for so many years before ebikes were permitted (smile.)

It has been interesting to watch the rise of the modern ebike in this time. Brushless DC motors and hub motors and the improvements in battery chemistries as power and energy densities rise and cycle life improves. And now the latest Lithium chemistries seem to be taking ebikes to a whole other level and ebike use is just exploding in many parts of the world.

I "grew up" learning about ebikes among the hobby crowd of "nerd" ebikers converting pedal bikes adding motors and battery packs. So it has been interesting to see the new stores selling complete ebikes to my neighbours, especially the "scooter-style" ebikes that while they conform to the letter of the law for power-assisted bicycles are perhaps not exactly what our legislators and Transport Canada etc first envisioned...

Today we are seeing something of a comeback to the cycling culture that was lost in North America a hundred years ago, but which has lived on in Europe all these years. A number of our cities in Canada now have small but vocal groups of cyclists that advocate for the pedal bicycle for many good reasons including our health and the health of our urban and natural environments.

But the sad truth is that today less than two percent of Canadians will say that the pedal bicycle is their primary form of transportation.

Much of the talk among ebikers in this nascent community is about fixing and maintaining ebike components including battery packs etc.

But to my mind I believe for widespread adoption of ebikes what is more important than fixing these bikes is fixing the 20th-century laws and attitudes about "motor vehicles" that act as barriers to the ebike.

The legal "power-assisted bicycle" is a unique vehicle in Ontario transportation law and history as the only motorized vehicle included in the definition of "bicycle" under the Ontario Highway Traffic Act.

This because these little vehicles are designed to emulate the performance characteristics of the Victorian pedal bicycle... the devil we already know (smile.)

The fact that on our roads they are regulated as bicycles (no licencing or insurance) is specifically intended as an inducement for Canadians not to give up the pedal bicycle but to give up the 20th-century motorized carriage (the gas powered automobile.)

But while Canada recognized the power-assisted bicycle in April 2001, and eventually Ontario in April 2009, each level of government has "passed the buck" and the Ontario Highway Traffic Act permits:
"Prohibiting motor assisted bicycles, etc., on municipal highways
(2) The council of a municipality may by by-law prohibit pedestrians or the use of motor assisted bicycles, bicycles, wheelchairs or animals on any highway or portion of a highway under its jurisdiction."

("motor-assisted" here refers to "mopeds" while power-assisted bicycles are included here as they are included in the definition of "bicycle")


So as sales of ebikes are taking off in Ontario this same conversation about ebikes is happening across all our cities and towns...

Very often there are existing by-laws in place that ban or restrict "motorized vehicles" from City streets and park lands and bike trails.

And these by-laws include definitions of "motorized vehicles" that are sometimes vague, and could not foresee the modern power-assisted bicycle.

My perspective about ebikes (that it is more important that we fix laws and perspectives rather than ebike electrical systems) has turned me into a bit of a history buff, with a special interest in the late 19th-century and early 20th-century when the first motorized vehicles were appearing and pedal bicycles and tricyles were in their hay day and steam and battery-electric and gas vehicles were all competing for motorized supremacy.

One of my ebike heros is the "Edison of France", French inventor Gustave Trouvé who on April 8, 1881 rode around downtown Paris for 90 minutes on a battery-electric tricycle... several years before Karl Benz put his gas powered trike on the road (today billed as the "first car".) So when folks say "ebikes are new" I get to say "not really!" (smile)

And not "ebike history" exactly but the United States Department of Transportation - Federal Highway Administration has a terrific writeup online about the fight against the pedal bike and the automobiles being allowed into New York City's Central Park in the late 1800's:
http://www.fhwa.dot.g...


Today, when I read the concerns being expressed by folks in Toronto and North Bay about ebikes on our roads and in our parks I realize they are all the same concerns that were being expressed over one hundred years ago about the Victorian pedal bicycle!

The *only* concern I have not heard about ebikes yet is that they are "scaring the horses"! (grin)

In the time I have been interested in ebikes I have heard every objection imaginable about ebikes, and I believe there are easy answers for each concern.

continues...

Rather than extend this too-long email further, I hope you will let me send you a further email to detail each of the concerns I am aware of and what I believe are the answers.

I should say that I am writing you in a personal capacity. That I have no commercial interest in profiting personally from ebikes. But I am pleased to report that a group of ebike users in Toronto recently agreed to organize ourselves as a not-for-profit, the Toronto Electric Riders Association, and while our paid membership is still very small, there are over three hundred Toronto and area ebikers now using our online forums, here:
http://www.ebikerider...

And I am honoured to say that the folks at TERA voted me as their Treasurer...

A couple of days ago I was interviewed during a live call-in radio program concerning ebikes in Toronto parks (bike trails.) The program is now online as a podcast, here:
http://zoomerradio.ca...

Thank you again Dave for getting back to me. While I concern myself with my neighbours welfare in Toronto I am just as interested in seeing a "greener" and cleaner world for my neighbours in North Bay.

Cheers

Lock Hughes
Toronto

Replied to the article as mariposaman.

http://www.nugget.ca/...

North Bay council seems to be at it again.

Municipal politicians will be discussing the rules e-bike operators should be following when a staff report is presented to council Monday during committee talks.

The report is a follow up to a previous staff recommendation that the city promote the fact that e-bikes are bounded by rules of the road for bicycles under the Highway Traffic Act. The only exceptions are that operators must be 16 years of age or older; and all operators must wear an approved bicycle helmet at all times.

The issue came to council earlier this year following numerous complaints from residents about the power-assisted bicycles, especially regarding people operating them on sidewalks and the Kate Pace Way.

An e-bike must weigh no more than 120 kilograms and must not have a power outage greater than 500 watts and a speed greater than 32 kilometre per hour. A driver's licence is not required, nor is there a written test, vehicle registration, plate or insurance.

E-bikes are allowed to travel anywhere bicycles are permitted, although municipalities have the power to prohibit them from roads, sidewalks, bike paths, trails and bike lanes.

First news report:
http://www.nugget.ca/...

E-bikes face bumpy ride

Proposed trail restrictions will come to a vote next week

By GORD YOUNG The Nugget

Updated 51 minutes ago

Municipal politicians are considering banning e-bikes on area trails, including the Kate Pace Way.

Several council members agreed Monday during committee discussions that power-assisted bicycles should be prohibited from trails due to their heavy weight and high speed capabilities compared to other trail users, such as walkers and conventional cyclists.

Staff had initially recommended that e-bikes be permitted anywhere conventional bicycles are allowed under the Highway Traffic Act and city bylaws, except on area trails, where they would have to be in pedal mode.

Council heard from staff that public trails are intended to promote active, healthy living and that e-bikes should be operated on roads if they're not being pedalled.

But most council members agreed that it would be virtually impossible to enforce a pedal-only restriction and opted to ban e-bikes from trails altogether, especially after hearing that many models are simply too heavy to make pedalling practical.

According to city staff, the bicycles, which are powered by electric motors, can weigh up to 250 pounds and travel at speeds of up to 32 km/h.

A driver's licence is not required, nor is there a written test, vehicle registration, plate or insurance.

I would prefer not to see them on trails where we have children walking, rollerblading and biking," said Coun. Sean Lawlor, referring to the potential for a serious accident involving the heavier and faster e-bikes.

Council heard from staff that there are already complaints and conflicts among the different users on Kate Pace Way and other trails.

Although most of council, including Mayor Al McDonald, agreed the trails aren't the place for e-bikes, several members acknowledged they're an environmentally- friendly and affordable mode of transportation.

I think the main purpose that people buy these bikes is to get from point A to point B-- not recreation," said Coun. Mac Bain, suggesting many e-bike operators likely aren't even interested in riding the trails.

Rick Fricker, an e-bike dealer who attended the meeting, said most riders would agree.

Fricker said e-bikes are too big and shouldn't be on the trails. He said the best place for them is on the roads, although there are some drivers who would argue otherwise.

Darrell Deibel, an e-bike rider who attended the meeting, had a different opinion.

Deibel said he occasionally rides on the Kate Pace Way and doesn't believe council should ban e-bikes from trails.

He said e-bikes are considered bicycles under the law and should be permitted on bike paths. Deibel said Kate Pace Way has a posted speed limit of 20 km/h and the city should enforce that restriction.

The proposal, which will come before council next week for a vote, would see signs posted along area trails advising that e-bikes are not permitted. In addition, e-bikes would be permitted trailers containing any human occupants. Trailers would also be limited in size.

gyoung@nugget.ca

Just got in my comment before comments closed. Same old crap, too big too fast. I think they are also going to ban kiddie trailers too with "human cargo". I do not see them any more dangerous than kiddie trailers behind bicycles. A reasonably fit cyclist can maintain 32 kph, and more, on level ground with little difficulty.

People seem to be forgetting that ebike owners are tax payers too (and voters).

Way to go "mariposaman"

I suspect "northbaydarrell" is the Darrell Deibel quoted in the article. Also seen here:
http://ebikernetwork....

I have emailed Darrell to express support. Hope to see him logon here...

Lock