starkmojo

I think there is a difference between someone doing something annoying an something that endangers others. Many years ago I was biking home around 8PM and there was a guy trying to get in his car and was so messed up he couldn't get his key in the door lock (this was before keyless entry was common) I stopped and tried to get him to get a cab. He told me to go f#ck myself and managed to get the door open and flopped into the seat and sped of weaving down the road. Sure as hell I called the cops- because he was an obvious danger to other road users.
A person driving what is essentially a electric moped on a MULTI USE PATH at high speeds is a danger to themselves and others. There can be kids on the path, dogs on those stupid eleactic leashed, old ladies walking 3 abreast. (Those last can be an example of "annoying but not dangerous" for you). Speed increases the potential of serious injury/death on impact. A person riding at 30MPH on a MUPS is a danger to other users. So yeah I say get the authoritied involved.

Just yesterday I was on my local MUPS and had just slowed down for a kid/dog party on the MUPS when I see a guy with a fat tire ebike cruising along at some pretty good clip (I dont know exactly but over 15MPH probably over 18) headphones blaring loud enough I could here the song (Steely Dan... why do d-bags all like Steely Dan? They are a pretty good band but their fans ) EYES CLOSED throttling (no pedaling) towards the group of kids. I gave the motorcycle slow down sign, but HIS EYES WERE CLOSED so I yelled "LOOKOUT COPS" and boy he heard that and slowed right on down.

This has been a worsening trend as ebikes get cheaper and more available (just a couple weekends ago there was a couple pushing their way through a MUPS yelling "Look Out!" and "get out of the way" on a super crowded and popular MUPS in Bend full of kids and pedestrians on their $4000 plus electric ebikes. teh inevitable serious crash/injury/fatality is not too far off. When that happens the law will step in and it will be heavy handed and dumb because thats how laws work. Speed limits will be so low on MUPS that biking on them will be pointless for getting anywhere (like 12MPH) .

I say this even though I think ebikes have AWESOME potential as a mobility aid, commute vehicle, urban game changer. BUT I think there is a point where if you are going above a certain speed you need to be on a road and not on what is in America anyway a wide sidewalk. For me that is about 18MPH. When I want to get trucking over that speed I play in traffic. Now what we need is a seperated bike infrastructure so we are not terrorizing pedestrians the same way cars do Bikes on the road, but until that exists in the current infrastructure MUPS need to have a max speed... and while we may disagree with that speed it is surely under 30MPH.