Local laws limiting power and speed

I live in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. We have laws here that regulate top speed and max power in watts for e-bikes and e-scooters like most places in the world. 32kmh top speed with 500 watt motors.

It is probably due to the low volume of electric bikes and scooters, no body of authority enforces these laws. Even on our public bike paths, that are monitored by police on bicycle, they do not bother e-bike and e-scooters.

Sure, they will try to chase me down if i'm seen on the street passing cars at 65 kmh, thankfully my city is riddled with bike paths and bike crossways But unless you make it obvious, nobody bothers us and our setups here.

However, we are seeing a fast growing number of escooters and ebikes. I'm sure it is a question of time before authorities do start to check on us.

So I was curious as to how are other countries, that are more strict and enforce these regulations and laws, go about doing it exactly?

Wishes

In California, the legal max is 1000w, max speed 20MPH. The 1000w rule for power is reasonable, max speed should be raised to 25MPH. How ever in my experience the local police doesn't enforce the law. Mainly because E-bikes are so silent and don't get in the way of traffic. I have been riding my E-bike most of what I have seen only a few conversions, most are the low speed electric type scooters.

Western Canada here.
Here in fossil fuel oil and gas land police doesn't have a clue what ebike is.
It is in curiosity category still, weird category. I was stopped or rather inquired 2 times by police what I ride. By accident I rode legal 500W, 32km/h Tidal Force when they wave at me at stinky fast food /usually I pinch my nose when I close to it/ parking lot.
It does not mean that if I "cross the line" they still not paying attention.
to me "crossing the line" for sure includes overtaking cars on illegal vehicle. People you overtake at such speed for sure expect to see plates on your bike but there are none.
So I can ride over 50km/h on my EPLUS, but I will not ride over 50km/h in provocative manner. Overtaking is asking for....
Another thing is to follow/keep up with cars at over 50km/h.
I don't know if it crossed your mind what if you got in accident riding what is essentially not registerd vehicle.
For sure insurance would look for any reason they could find to NOT pay off to whoever.

Hi Everyone!

I'm a new member and I'm looking to build an e-bike in the near future.

In British Columbia Canada where I live, the laws require a motor of "500W" (volts x amps input limited to 500W?)and a max assisted speed of 32 Kph. I don't see many e-bikes on the road, though there are a fair number of e-scooters around. I haven't noticed any e-bikes greatly exceeding the speed limit, though there is one that passes me regularly when I'm commuting on my non-electric hybrid. I'm not sure how fast I'm going, but my 15 Km commute to work takes me around 30 minutes including hills, stops etc., so I have to assume I'm probably going 35 Kph on the flats and I'm being passed at 40.

I haven't heard of the police checking e-bikes, but this may change as they gain popularity and faster e-bikes appear on the road in greater numbers.

I would like to build an e-bike with a "1000w" motor and a top speed of 50 Kph because it will have more torque and acceleration than a "street legal" e-bike. For safety reasons, it is equally important to be able to accelerate out of a tight spot as to brake, so having some extra room on the top end is a good idea. For the most part, I would be cruising at around 35 Kph.

I'm sure the police would leave me alone as long as I don't do anything crazy, though it weighs on me as to what would happen if I were hit while riding an overpowered e-bike - even if I were operating my e-bike within regulations.

Edit: I see this subject has been partially addressed in other threads, though the information could be dated (see http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=46617)

Don't you know don't ask don't tell. 2300Watts 30mph and yes the spring on my throttle is broken so it's WOT all day.
Or uck them.

welcome fellow Canadian.
I bought my Canada legal Tidal Force in Kelowna and my 1000W EPLUS kit in Vancouver.
I know for sure that Vancouver is the destination if you want to by ebike or ekit in Canada.
My EPLUS technically legally should be used only off road. I signed document at the time of purchase.
I am also very concerned about getting into accident on my EPLUS. Placing stickers on motor/controller?
I am aware I might be openning can of worms here but want to know more.
What would happen if insurance claims were submitted? Under whatever policies?
Insurance can hire whoever technical to find out very fast that sticker is a fake.
For sure remains of ebike would have been inspected for sure once it were clear that is not regular bicycle but motor vehicle.
Goal of insurer is one - pay as little as possible or not at all.
What I ride is vehicle with no plates and no insurance.
For this reason and just to avoid confrontations and serious injury I ride at least 80% on sidewalks and streets ONLY when traffic is very light like 5:00AM or mornings on weekend.
Riding legal 500W/32km/h ebike changes a lot legally but I still use sidewalks even more than riding EPLUS .

UK.

Here we have a maelstrom of confusion due to there being two sets of applicable laws.

First is the Electrically Assisted Pedal Cycle Regulations 1983. These rules are still in force, and say you can have 200W up to 15mph. Throttle control is allowed. Maximum weight of 40kg. I shudder to think what a 1980's ebike would have been like to ride, or how you'd have got a range greater than that of a well thrown housebrick on a bike powered by SLA's weighing less than 40kg.

However, there is a set of European regs that are supposed to supersede these regulations. These state 250W max, pedal assist only, and up to 15.5mph. Problem is, the UK government has yet to sign up to these regs, placing them, and the1983 laws into a bit of a legal limbo. Anything over 200W is supposed to be type approved and registered as a motorcycle, yet 250W ebikes are sold in the UK despite them not being legal.

Personally, I've no idea what really applies. I'm building a bike that could probably swallow the best part of 2kW if given the chance, but then I very very rarely ride on the road. In order to keep it legal on the rare occasions I do venture out into the Queens highway, I'm using a cycle analyst V3 with power and speed limiting to give me a legal preset that should comply with the law. How well that will stand up in the face of a bored, tetchy and unreasonable police officer remains to be seen though.

I'm sure it's only a matter of time before someone does something really dumb and forces the government to take action though. This is the UK after all, home of Shakespeare, Darwin, Newton, Whittle, Cockerel, and a subset of population so astoundingly stupid its amazing they can remember to breathe in and out. One of their number will ruin it for everyone, and probably fairly soon, so I'm not anticipating being "allowed" to ride my non-type approved home built ebike for too long.

Couple of things spring to mind, though maybe slightly off topic.

1. Here in Ontario the police have no way of measuring power output. So they have no way to penalize you on overpower.
Unless you confess to them. My 1500w bike can be run at 500w/32kph so that falls in their legal definition.
There is no limit to off-road use. How can they make a judgement on power used on road.
As to the speed limit that's just as vague. The law here says that you can't exceed 32kph under motor power.
A speed lower than I can achieve pedal only. Bicycles are to follow traffic laws. Don't exceed the posted speed limit and pedal(as faux as it may be) and they have no case against you.
2.If cops are cracking down on ebikes in your area, you are over policed. Think how many tickets a cop would have to write to justify their salary. If they are writing up ebikers I would question the city about their police budget.
If they have time to ticket ebikes you must live in the safest, crime, drug free, area in the world.
Every cop I've interacted with while on my ebike has had zero interest in questioning me about my power use or legality.
They mostly ignore it, don't notice. Or give a smile and thumbs up.

If anyone has had a legal run in id love to hear about it. Not met anyone who has even been stopped locally.

So police looks another way, cannot proof, cannot inforce, too busy to even think about ebikes.\
Slightly off topic but have you thought what would happen if you got in serious accident with not legal ebike?
I am sure insurance company would be able to proof.

miro13car said:

So police looks another way, cannot proof, cannot inforce, too busy to even think about ebikes.\
Slightly off topic but have you thought what would happen if you got in serious accident with not legal ebike?
I am sure insurance company would be able to proof.

Click to expand...

Is your ebike insured?
How will an insurance company know your power usage before an accident.
If you caused an accident you should be held liable.
Your E+ is illegal on the street, you signed a waiver admitting your lawlessness.
Better not ride that again in case you cause grave bodily harm.
Still waiting for the case of someone being charged with over-power or over-speed or having insurance liability.
So much fear. Must be tough to enjoy your ride while looking over you shoulder for the po po and insurance agent.

I was just pointing out the confusion in Canadian regs and their ability and desire to enforce said regs.

So what do you think will happen if I'm in a serious accident? Ontario is a no fault insurance province. I currently am insured by no one. What will be of me?

Last year i rode around 4000km mostly on city area and i saw four E-bikes live. I did not saw a single E-scooter or bicycle cop. So it"s very theoretical that problems would occur.
Only people that talk about E-bike law are those people that do not own one and mostly would not even know one if shown. Somehow those who ride one are not so focused on the issue :wink:
Then on our main MUT"s gas-scooters are allowed to roam 45 km/h, they actually reach around 60 km/h. So even with 45 km/h E-bike i am not the fastest guy out there, they overtake me.
Incurance issue is not so heated, because everybody will be fixed by the free healthcare if something happens anyway. Better ride safely and avoid accidents.
I doubt there will be the day when cops start to check E-bikes out there systematically. It"s just not so great crime and they have more important things to do.

...... The point of the thread was to find out if and how, in other parts of the world, are these laws and regulations being applied and enforced.

You can't mention or even hint at an e-bike on the street that is not legal without peeps jumping all over it. Thank you all for the insurance liabilities and bodily harm warnings but you can go start your own threads on the subject and keep this one on topic. No offense intended to those with legit questions on the subject but this is like saying LIPO and everyone yells fire!!



Wishes

Here you have above post from
"another part of the world" - Helsinki, Finland - he doubts there will be the day caps will regularly check ebikes.

I think we made simultanious posts with Wishes. I dunno, maybe IF 50% of bicycles start to be E-bikes in 2025 or whatever, then maybe law enforcement will pay some attention, but i doubt it. I mean, they don"t give a damn about gas mopeds right now. Many of them are tuned, or otherwise illegal. Of course depends about the country. Cops here are strongly focused on speed limit violations on main roads and drunk driving, that"s where their potential is used. It"s not unusual that car driver here may have to blow on alcometer even twice during the day. We used to have quite liberal gas-bicycle law in the past, we even manufactured those bikes. Old gas-bikes during the fifties, which you can still buy if you want a nice museum bike, have over 2hp, around 2000W, and they were legal many decades here. So this EU-250W-joke is just way beyond that it could be taken seriously. It"s around 1/8 what was legal just couple decades ago.
Every country has it"s own technological history i guess. Too nitpicky law enforcement is no good, it does not serve the country.

Here in the still somewhat wild west, cops ignore me riding 30 mph. But supposing they even remember the local law, 30 mph is legal.

I have not ridden past a cop at 40 mph, but when sneaking out on my race bike at 40 mph, I definitely start getting stares from every car I'm keeping up with.

I think mostly, you'd be wise to ride as bike like as possible in your area. That is to say, less than 30 mph.

If you keep riding 40 mph, even on 45 mph streets, you will eventually get some doofus whining to the cops, the mayor, or whatever. Then the cops will have no choice but to begin trying to hunt you down.

But of course, if you live in a really big city, it won't be possible for one whiner to start a crack down. I mean this could happen if you live in a small city, or town. This could be true even if you live in a small burb that is part of a megalopolis. It just takes a town with only a handful of cops for them to have to do what the mayor demands. A big police force will be way to busy with real crime.

You live in Montreal, so I seriously doubt a cop who chases you will have much chance of ever seeing you again, and catching you. But do give it some thought, if you will be hauling ass every day along the same street at the same time doing a commute. If you piss off a cop, he can easily set a trap for you tomorrow.

Don't forget either, that cops who chase somebody hard enough and then catch them tend to start pounding on the guy.

The local police in Alamogordo, NM were doing a train law enforcement program. Lo and behold I was riding my 1200 w ebike on the dirt trail that belongs to the Railroad and the police officer pulled me over thinking it was only a bicycle as I was not riding fast and just reminded me not to ride on Railroad utility roads meanwhile 40 plus joggers from my girlfriends physical education class were jogging by..LOl. Bottom line is the cop wasn't thinking my electric bicycle was a motorized vehicle, because I wasn't driving or acting like one.

Brentis said:

If anyone has had a legal run in id love to hear about it. Not met anyone who has even been stopped locally.

Click to expand...

Same. My commute is 30km (each way) through the greater Vancouver area and I've have no problems, not that I excessively speed or anything. It would be challenging to enforce these laws especially with stealthy e-bikes and the fact that it's not hard for a typical cyclist to exceed 32km/h (I can even on a my non-motorised FS MTB).

One classic example is New York. There, all ebikes are illegal. Any enforcement of this law seems directed entirely at delivery riders, who have a way of ignoring all traffic laws.

In general, cops are delighted if you are merely riding on the correct side of the road, and slow down some at a stop sign.

One thing that has cropped up in several places, is how people ride on multi use paths. It's illegal for me to ride the paths here, but by riding courteously, I have been doing it for 6 years with only one talk with a cop. In that case, I stopped to recommend that the bicycle cops try ebikes. He seemed uninterested in trying one, or caring that I was on one on the path.

Besides the power restriction regulations that is a provincial if not a country wide regulation. We have city laws in Montreal that I think apply to both ebike and regular bicycles, that oblige them to be equipped with proper reflectors on the wheels, powered front light and all riders must where a bicycle protective helmet at a minimum. And I have seen bicycle police warning, harassing and even ticketing ebikes that did not comply while regular bike riders were not bothered. So they seem to be applying these to us ebikers specifically.

Electric scooters will get stopped and ticketed if riders are not wearing a helmet and if they have removed the pedals. Must keep those pedals on the escooters to avoid the having to put a license plate on them. And i think they are trying to pass a law to keep the e-scooters off the public bike path network we have that is built, maintained and managed by various levels of government.

So Ebikes and Escooters are somewhat monitored and can be ticketed, but not over power and speed regulations. And that is strictly limited to our downtown area where bicycles, ebikes and escooters are in significant numbers when weather permitting and so are the bicycle police monitoring the bike paths. Anywhere outside of the city like the suburbs and they don't look at you twice. Unless you are doing something obvious like overtaking cars on the street of course.

I had started this thread because I have seen many posts and threads from people concerned about maintaining the power restriction levels of their area. That made me curious as to how these restrictions were being monitored, regulated and applied in these areas. It is very interesting to learn what levels of enforcement and how they are being applied in other parts of the world. Thank you all for the replies.

Wishes

Wishes