“It’s so sad, so I’m just devastated. It shouldn’t have happened, and I heard an e-bike was involved. Those e-bikes are out of control. They spook me all the time,” said Cathy Murray of Burlingame.

  • coyootje@lemmy.world
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    19 days ago

    Let me preface this by saying I haven’t read the article so i can’t say anything about this specific case.

    As for your comment, I agree. It’s one thing to have an e-bike that goes slightly faster than regular cycling speed (20-25 km/h). However, where I live (the Netherlands) there’s have “fatbikes” now, basically the current generations scooter which is given to children at a much younger age and not regulated at all. No helmets, no protective clothing, no minimum age, nothing. Those things can go faster than 30 km/h and it’s somewhat common to tune them to go 40 km/h or more. That is a ridiculous speed for a 12 year old to take part in traffic with.

    You’re going faster than a car driving to a neighborhood area here. There’s a reason why cars can only go 30 and somehow you can go 40? Add to that the brazenness of a young kid and you have a pretty dangerous cocktail. Fatbikes formed a large share of the traffic accidents last year and there doesn’t seem to be any sign of this changing with the government we have here being constantly in crisis or getting ready for another doomed election.