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huron9000 t1_iw4azym wrote

E-bikes and e-scooters should be allowed on bike paths. These small motorized vehicles are no more prone to reckless operation than their non-motorized equivalents.

Motorization is not the issue. Speed and recklessness are. By far the most dangerous thing I’ve seen on the east bay bike path has been the road bike racers hauling through at pretty high speed.

The original post comes off as a puritanical complaint, as if the OP is just mad that some people are moving apparently without exercising their bodies enough.

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sailri t1_iw4jppf wrote

Not true at all. The problem is walkers think that they should not have to pay attention to the normal speed of traffic, as if the speed limit, of which there is none, should be adjusted downward for their piece of mind.

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huron9000 t1_iw55ivx wrote

What’s not true? I agree that walkers on these paths need to be alert and aware of other modes of transport they are sharing a space with. I never said otherwise.

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sailri t1_iw58pxc wrote

What’s not true? Speed is not a problem. Recklessness is not the problem. We could send a paceline of 100 cyclists at 18 mph riding conservatively by 1 walker per all 15 miles of the path. Safe speed. Safe riders. 15 complaints from walkers or parents with six year old kids on bikes or moms walking side by side pushing carriages. Those 100 cyclists on a road would result in the same complaints from those same 15 walkers driving home, except the complaint would be they’re driving too slow on the road and taking up too much space.

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huron9000 t1_iw5ct2q wrote

Your comments dodge the gist of my initial comment, which was that a bike or scooter being motorized does not make it inherently more dangerous on a bike path, it is all how the vehicle is operated.;

But regardless, speed itself isn’t the problem, it is speed differentials. And I have seen bike dudes jam through crowded bike path conditions at way more than 18 mph. Like, try 30+ mph.

And yes, you are right that clusters of clueless pedestrians sprawling across the width of the bike path are a real problem. I never said they weren’t.

I was drawing a distinction between motorized and non-motorized bikes, and that non-motorized ones are capable, and in my experience more likely, of causing a problem of speed differentials among users.

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