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 [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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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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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I mean, we do in Australia - though to be fair, I've seen more of a drop off in use after the rental scooters came to town; but almost everyone I see on their own bike is wearing a helmet.

Guess we have to protect ourselves in the face of such little bike infrastructure

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's because of the model. Bike sharing is spontaneous, unplanned. People who are planning on riding a bike will bring their own bike and helmet.

But to require a helmet to use a bike rental service means planning ahead and bringing a helmet. If a person was planning ahead they would use their own bike.

Helmets, bells, hand signals are BS attempts at making cycling safe. It blames the victims in the event of an accident. If you get badly injured by an SUV it's because you didn't have a helmet and didn't tell the driver you were stopping. It's not their fault

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I hear you, but it's different here so that isn't inevitable - our scooters have helmets clipped in so unless it's been nicked or something there's usually one there to use and (admittedly because our cycling infrastructure is, on par, outright dangerous) we have laws here that put the onus on drivers. For us, it is their fault - they're legally meant to stay 1.5 metres away from us on roads.

I mean, the safety stuff is pretty essential here tbh, aforementioned infrastructure being what it is - I wouldn't trust Australian drivers (or even the road itself in some cases) with my safety, so I think we might be in different contexts.