Cycling, traffic safety, traffic justice, and legal topics; energy, transit and transportion economics
I’m mentioning this incident specifically for a couple of reasons… read on.
2026-09-07 around 3:30pm. Police say a man riding an “e-bike” died when he struck the rear of a parked semi near 19th Avenue and Mountain View Road.
The use of the term “e-bike” is often used very loosely. We need to know whether this is a class 1, 2, or 3 electric bicycle. If it is not any of those, it is a motorcycle. Continue reading “e-bike rider in Phoenix dies after striking rear of parked semi”
The standard three class electric bicycle definition was enshrined into ARS in 2018. There is no explicit speed limit for electric bicycles; but unfortunately, the mention of 20/28mph in the definitions has led some to mistakenly believe there is, in effect, and e-bike speed limit.
This is not the case. Where an electric bicycle meets a class definition, it may be operated at any speed; so long as it meets Arizona’s “basic speed rule” which typically boils down to no faster than reasonable and prudent. You are probably aware that bicycles routinely go faster than 20 or 28mph! Electric bicycles are bicycles. Continue reading “There is no e-bike speed limit”
[UPDATE: it seems quite possible something changed after 2020? see comment and stats]
[UPDATE: Something DEFINITELY changed as of FARS 2022; see below]
Executive Summary
Each of these has the potential to skew crash reporting statistics. Motorized bicycles have not seen wide use, but ebikes are expected to become much more common
I propose adding a few new “Body Style” definitions: 1) bicycle (well, pedalcycle), 2) motorized bicycle, 3) ebike; this would not require any changes to the Arizona Crash Forms, simply an update to the Crash Form Instruction Manual.
It is expected that ebikes will see large growth in use in the coming years; e.g, the WSJ reported: Continue reading “Motorized bicycles, Ebikes and crash reporting”