I'm on the record as absolutely hating e-bikes, but this argument negates all of that.
We are never going to get the vast majority of lazy, corpulent couch toads out of their cars and onto bikes unless the bike does the riding for them.
I live 13.5 miles of dead flat road from work. I can ride that in 45 minutes including lights w/o breaking much of a sweat, yet friends at work completely freak out that I commute by bike. Even more so when I tell them that I do a 29 mile route with hills instead because the 13.5 is way too short.
For most folks, riding three miles would be a physical hellscape. E-bikes (or an apocalypse) are the only way they will ever choose to ride rather than drive to the neighborhood store.
...and yes, I got passed by an e-bike this morning on my way to work. Wanted to strangle the fat ***ker.
Gonna have to work on that.

Makes gas $7 a gallon and I suspect you'll find some new converts to this cycling thing, e-bike or no.

Anecdotally, I was riding my eBike to work this morning and while stopped at a light an older (elderly) gentleman pulled up next to me on his eBike. We had enough time to chat. We both have the same commute, 10 miles each way by bike which takes us each about 30 minutes by eBike and from experience and about 40 minutes by car. He said that before eBikes he just couldn't physically ride every day, now he is a daily rain-or-shine eCommuter. I think that is super rad on many levels.

Nope..make gas scarce and you 'might' but there will be lotsa other issues going on..Gas has been that range in Europe for a log time and yes, Europe is different(smaller) but people drive in Europe just like they always have.

Sign me up. For the right application, they’re great! I went out for dinner in Seattle with my wife and two friends and it was amazing. No car, no gas, another beer ;)

Yes and yes. You make the case for eBike transportation perfectly.

Another case for the eBike: an acquaintance of mine is largely responsible for maintaining 100+ miles of trail and woodland paths on Martha's Vineyard. He relies heavily on a couple 27.5+ eMTBs to regularly inspect all of the trails and to haul in equipment (chainsaws, etc) to work sites. The eMTB makes this volume of trail management possible and relatively low-impact. Joining a trail inspection a borrowed eMTB is also a lot of fun.

honestly I don't know a ton about them so this could be a dumb comment... but my confusion rests with seeing people blast around on them going downhill or on the flats. seems you'd want to save the battery and, you know, get some exercise in by actually pedaling on the flats/coasting downhill, then use the e-assist for uphills. but I only ever see people going full tilt on them.

I never said it would eliminate driving. But you would see a more distributed mix of transit usage than you do today (a la Europe) if gas were priced more as it is elsewhere than here and people consider making different choices.

It would force us to reconsider all the knock-on decisions we've made as a result of cheap gas over the last few decades, and that would include some folks who we thought we couldn't pry out of their cars suddenly thinking this whole bike thing ain't such a bad idea.

I don't have much to add to the ebike discussion, but that is one kick-ass base for work stand!

The difference is, in Europe, they actually are e-bikes. European regulations limit electric assist to 25 kph (15.5 mph). "E-bikes" sold in the US have electric assist to much higher speeds (20 mph for Class 1&2, 28 mph for class 3), and many of these also have throttle modes (no pedaling required).

Let's face it - if the vehicle can be driven without the rider providing the power, then it is a motor scooter, not a bicycle. I'm not against motor scooters at all - the US would probably be a better place if more people rode motor scooters and less drove automobiles. But motor scooters shouldn't be lumped together with bicycles.

Here in Massachusetts, regulations allow e-bike in on-street bike lanes, but not off-street recreation paths. This seems reasonable to me, but I suspect that there will be little to no enforcement on the many rail trails here in Massachusetts. Earlier this year, there was collision death on the Minuteman Bikeway rail trail in Lexington, MA, largely due to a rider going faster than appropriate for the conditions. As it is now, the number of riders on recreation paths that can and do ride too fast is limited. But if e-bike users start riding the paths, there will be no double be more of these collisions.

that looks great, SVEN has been making some nice hand made electric frames recently. I think these are a great addition to the bicycle family.

Gravel bikes are a blip on radar compared to the e-bike market.

This argument has nothing to do with ebikes. Was the accident you cited even involving an ebike? The same false logic could be applied to cars, but is not. The speed limits are enough legislation, as is for MUPS. The last thing I want is more legislation regarding bicycle sales.

High power cars are 'penalized' in two ways: Both only affect the owner of the car: luxury tax and insurance rates.
Insurance rates determined by several factors, but leave gov legislation out of it.
If we were to apply the same standard to bicycles, road racing bikes would be heavily taxed and most expensive to insure due to speed, likelyhood of crash and accidents as well as high maintenance.

The vast majority of ebikes are 'work' utility bikes.

The only legislation that should be out there is taxpayer funds allocated to segregated bike lanes and making more of them.

Awesome! And one thing is guaranteed, we’re all getting older.