Ebike Rules of the Road - Sharing the Road with Electric Bikes

Hey, guys, Peter here at Sixthreezero. I want to share with you a few ideas about the rules of the road with e-bikes. All right. So hey, welcome, guys. I just want to make this brief, but a few observations as I'm sure everyone has noticed, especially if you live near maybe a high school or a middle school, places like that. There are tons of e-bikes on the road now, and also a lot of younger people on e-bikes get to school a lot of times. It's a great alternative to the car, I think. I'm excited that so many people are hopping on e-bikes. I've always ridden a bicycle myself. I used to ride to school as well as ride all the time when I was training. So it was something that I've always loved. And I feel like e-bikes have brought more people into the bicycle world, but that has also brought a few challenges and some interesting things that I think might be good to talk about.

I think that things are evolving with this new culture of e-bikes and e-vehicles, and then sharing the road and stuff like that. So a few things that I've noticed is that, so when I was a road cyclist, which everyone hates the road cyclist, the roadie out there. And what a lot of motorists don't understand is when the road cyclist is out there on the road, one reason why sometimes they ride obnoxiously is that they're seeing dangers on the road that motors just don't see or won't be affected by. For instance, there may be a grate that instead of being with the grates perpendicular to the road, they may be parallel to the road, which can suck your tire a cause a crash. Also, you're completely unprotected. So if you get hit by a car or crash like that, you're going to die.

Getting hit by a car on a bicycle is a very bad thing. So sometimes cyclists on the road are riding in a way that can be aggravating to drivers, but really, they're trying to protect their lives. You feel very exposed out there on the road. So as a roadie, I'm very aware of how obnoxious sometimes road cyclists can be. Also, one thing that grates on people's nerves is they're rolling through stop signs and rolling through red lights. In some states, it's legal to roll through stop signs on a bicycle, but in most states, it's not. You're supposed to go to a full stop. On a bicycle, if you've ridden just a regular bike or if you've maybe pushed a wheelbarrow or something like that, once you lose momentum, getting started back up again is very difficult. So that's why cyclists tend to do that, although they shouldn't.

I think one reason, yes, it's a little dangerous maybe, it's usually not that dangerous. But mainly it just does not extend the kind of goodwill to the rest of the traveling community that should be. So anyway, this is also happening, I think, a lot with e-bikes. People running red lights, running stop signs, things like that. And I think what's going to happen is that there's going to be more regulation and things like that and more laws regulating e-bikes. So anyway, the more we look out for each other and also the motorists respecting cyclists and cyclists respecting motorists and the rules of the road, the more we can just share the road and not have to deal with undue regulations or other things that impede our enjoyment. One really important thing, I think, something that I see a lot of times I think a lot of people just don't know, is that if you're on a wheeled vehicle here in the United States, you're supposed to be traveling with traffic, which means on the right side of the road, okay?

That may seem, I don't know, silly to some, or you may not understand the reason. Because if you're walking, actually you're supposed to walk opposite of traffic where you're watching the vehicles coming at you. You can jump off the road. If you're on a wheeled vehicle, you're supposed to be going with traffic and the traffic can go around you. If you're going against traffic on an e-bike or a bicycle, that's incredibly dangerous. And it's just something that makes me cringe a little bit when I see all the kids going to high school. I'm so happy that they're being able to take themselves to high school or middle school on their e-bikes. But when I see them going down the wrong side of the road, it just worries me because if a motorist is pulling out into the road out of a parking lot or a driveway or whatever, they're going to be looking to the left for oncoming traffic. After all, traffic is supposed to be moving on the right side of the road.

So they're going to be looking to the left like this. Then, when they pull out, they're going to pull out. And if you're coming in the other way, opposite traffic going down the left lane, that motorist is not going to see you. And so also, it just makes it a lot more difficult for other people trying to use the road if the traffic is going both ways on both lanes. So anyway, the rule of the road is, because I think a lot of people don't know this, is that on an e-bike you're supposed to ride with traffic, either to the side or on a bike lane if there is one.

Also, it's good to be respectful of pedestrians. I think that in some places you can ride your bicycle or e-bike on a sidewalk. A lot of people feel safer. Whatever, I'm not the police here or whatever or trying to ruin anybody's day, but do be respectful of pedestrians and stuff like that. It's just going to make things better in the long run. The more goodwill we can express to the rest of the community, the more that we'll get coming back our way, and then everyone can live and let live. So it's not an admonishment or anything to anybody, it's just that we're adjusting to a new reality of a lot of people on e-bikes, which I think is great. But then they're also moving at about the speed of cars, so it's kind of a completely new situation. It's unnerving to a lot of motorists.

Pedestrians can get hit by vehicles. People get hit by cars and are killed or injured by cars. That's also happening now with e-bikes and scooters where people are riding their e-bike or their scooter too fast and aren't noticing a pedestrian. There was a famous case in New York a little while back. And again, that adds to disrepute or dislike for e-bikes if they aren't ridden responsibly. Any moving vehicle can injure a person, and we should be mindful of those around us. But I think my main message is that, yes, please ride with traffic for your own sake. And then also, my learnings from being an obnoxious road cyclist looking out for their safety, if you're a motorist, I think that a lot of people now who never rode bikes a lot before now have e-bikes and they understand why you ride the way you do sometimes with traffic.

So I think that a lot of motorists now are understanding what people on bikes are experiencing and how that works together. So anyway, working together, we'll get through it. But, dude, try to stay on the right side of traffic, move with traffic, maybe give some grace to the pedestrians, and not ride on the sidewalk. Also, if you're on a bike path, e-bikes are starting to get banned from bike paths now and boardwalks and things like that because people are riding very fast. Road cyclists can ride very, very fast on just a regular bike, 20, 25, 30 miles an hour. And they can do that on the road. Sometimes you'll see that on a boardwalk. My son, when he was five years old, got hit by a road cyclist who was on the bike path going at a very high rate of speed.

That's not what the bike path is for. That's not what the boardwalk was for. For people who are strolling or going along with a nice cruising pace on their beach cruiser. Same thing with the e-bike. Even though they can go 20 miles an hour, it's not going to benefit anybody to run over someone's kindergartner. So there are just these things that we see, and it's a new situation for everybody. But I think that if we're all a little more mindful, and follow a few simple rules, then we don't have to have rules made for us. Okay, I truly hope that that was helpful to you. If you liked it, please do like it and hit subscribe. It helps grow our channel. And if you need any help at all, please contact us. You can call us at 310-982-2877 or email us at theteam@sixthreezero.com. Remember, Sixthreezero is spelled out S-I-X-T-H-R-E-E-Z-E-R-O. Theteam@sixthreezero.com. Thanks.

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