Just license them in accordance with their capabilities. All the bad press about ebikes lately is running cover for government negligence over lack of normalizing them into existing licensing frameworks, on behalf of the automotive lobby that knows if these vehicles aren't given an appropriate legal niche they will instead end up being seen by society as dangerous scofflaws and ultimately banned or legistalted out of practicality.

Use your brains. Ask why the discussion doesn't revolve around appropriate licensure and infrastructure, and instead revolves around how to get rid of them.

I've put 4000 miles on my e-bike in the past 2 years. Even though I follow traffic laws, I've seen far too much fuckery by other e-bike riders. I'm seeing children riding e-bikes and scooters, without helmets, doing crazy shit in the middle of the road almost cause accidents. I have narrowly avoided hitting such children on 3 separate occasions. I see plenty of adults on these things also not following traffic laws and riding these things on busy sidewalks.

I really do not want e-bikes to be regulated like cars. Being forced to register and carry insurance makes an inexpensive thing expensive. That being said, there are tons of dumb assholes out there that will ruin it for the rest of us.

While my knee-jerk reaction was that they're going to over regulate, all those changes are already in effect in the EU and it didn't destroy the e-bike market there. So I guess California will manage.

Class 2 and 3 requiring license plates makes sense to me.

And class 1 would be pedelecs in the EU, where they are capped at 250 Watt and 25 kmh. Class 1 being capped at 750 Watt and 16mph (25kmh) seems okay, might be inconvenient with how much further apart everything is over there, but reaction times are the same all over the globe.

I personally don't even drive the full 25kmh, in the city I'm capped by the manual cyclists in front, which I don't need to overtake. And outside I'm too worried about my battery to go full power. I will say, cargo bikes in particular could use a higher powered motor than the 250 Watts we have here, but I have no idea what a good cap would be.

E-bikes are already capped at 25km/h here. Aren't they elsewhere?

As if dozens of bros on dirt bikes and quads roaming about weren't enough, you have these dumb kids getting their hands on souped-up "e-bikes" where pedals are but an afterthought. These hellions are giving other e-bike riders, including people relying on pedal assist, a bad rep.

Reading what the law actually says, these seem to be sensible changes, bringing the rules in line with European standards.

It's not that bad. Little accountability never hurt anyone!

If I had to have a dismissive opinion though, if the license plates do not increase safety and reduce bike thefts, then it's just another meaningless cog on the machine.

I'd say stick a 30mph limit as a cutoff for needing to be licensed, with anything above that to just be considered a scooter (the 49cc kind that need licensed but aren't allowed on freeways) and anything faster than that a motorcycle, and be done with it.

I’m a bicyclist and a motorcyclist.

The bicyclists who act like a weekend class and a street safety test are an existential threat are full of it.

Yes, it IS possible to get licenses for things.

Having a plate on what’s a motorcycle in all but name is good for safety.

The number of people ripping along on bicycle and foot paths at 30mph+ has gotten insane. Even ignoring that, the number of single vehicle accidents on e-bikes has gone exponential.