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Unless a cop actually sees you doing a ridiculous speed they aren't going to check for P/W ratio or motor output Electric scooters are illegal in the UK, but p

Unless a cop actually sees you doing a ridiculous speed they aren't going to check for P/W ratio or motor output Electric scooters are illegal in the UK, but police don't have time or inclination to stop their widespread usage on public roads, and you're safe to ride past them unless you're doing something stupid. So many things like this have people getting away with it that the laws are just ignored eventually. When one has an incident ... Well, the hand wringers are out in droves telling everyone they told us so. Underfunded and under resourced police can't cope with the workload, for a change.

potato3732842 1y ago
>Unless a cop actually sees you doing a ridiculous speed they aren't going to check for P/W ratio or motor output Which in practice means that anyone who doesn't pass a vibe check can be stopped for a fishing expedition and the officer can say in the report "well, they appeared to be going faster, oops".
olivermuty 1y ago
Why not? We have a TON of ebikes i Norway and the cops regularly do checkpoints of suspected chippers in the main commute routes. They have a little threadmill thing similar to what chiptuners use when tuning car engines that measure torque, watt and top speed.
- potato3732842 1y ago
  Paying cops to run a checkpoint and dyno test bikes?!! That seems like a huge waste of government resources unless the goal is to save money on other enforcement areas by instilling a message of "don't you dare goose step an inch out of line, we're watching". I suspect it's more about pandering to police supporting demographics and looking busy than it is about enforcing anything.
  - namibj 1y ago
    Might be tamed by asset (vehicle here) forfeiture provision in some of the stricter European countries for when you do worse than just minor speeding: get caught e.g. street racing and now the state auctions off your vehicle, without you seeing a cent.
  - olivermuty 1y ago
    What a weird outlook. For me its more «I am happy that the police removes dangerous uninsurable vehicles from the road»
cogman10 1y ago
> Underfunded and under resourced police can't cope with the workload, for a change. In the US, the issue is mostly cops in cars. I'm pretty fortunate that my city has cops on bikes in common biking areas. That has reduced a huge amount of bad behavior of people on ebikes.
arp242 1y ago
> Electric scooters are illegal in the UK Technically they're not illegal, but they are classified as motor vehicles and require a driving license, tax, and insurance. However, no one actually offers insurance, and I guess you'll also run in to problems registering them for tax, so they are effectively illegal. This is just silly and because of a 1980s legal definition of "motor vehicle": "a mechanically propelled vehicle intended or adapted for use on roads". Non-enforcement seems like a good thing in lieu of parliament amending this unintended and silly classification. This is exactly what happened here in Ireland and some other countries.

potato3732842 1y ago

>Unless a cop actually sees you doing a ridiculous speed they aren't going to check for P/W ratio or motor output Which in practice means that anyone who doesn't pass a vibe check can be stopped for a fishing expedition and the officer can say in the report "well, they appeared to be going faster, oops".

olivermuty 1y ago

Why not? We have a TON of ebikes i Norway and the cops regularly do checkpoints of suspected chippers in the main commute routes. They have a little threadmill thing similar to what chiptuners use when tuning car engines that measure torque, watt and top speed.

potato3732842 1y ago
Paying cops to run a checkpoint and dyno test bikes?!! That seems like a huge waste of government resources unless the goal is to save money on other enforcement areas by instilling a message of "don't you dare goose step an inch out of line, we're watching". I suspect it's more about pandering to police supporting demographics and looking busy than it is about enforcing anything.
- namibj 1y ago
  Might be tamed by asset (vehicle here) forfeiture provision in some of the stricter European countries for when you do worse than just minor speeding: get caught e.g. street racing and now the state auctions off your vehicle, without you seeing a cent.
- olivermuty 1y ago
  What a weird outlook. For me its more «I am happy that the police removes dangerous uninsurable vehicles from the road»

cogman10 1y ago

> Underfunded and under resourced police can't cope with the workload, for a change. In the US, the issue is mostly cops in cars. I'm pretty fortunate that my city has cops on bikes in common biking areas. That has reduced a huge amount of bad behavior of people on ebikes.

arp242 1y ago

> Electric scooters are illegal in the UK Technically they're not illegal, but they are classified as motor vehicles and require a driving license, tax, and insurance. However, no one actually offers insurance, and I guess you'll also run in to problems registering them for tax, so they are effectively illegal. This is just silly and because of a 1980s legal definition of "motor vehicle": "a mechanically propelled vehicle intended or adapted for use on roads". Non-enforcement seems like a good thing in lieu of parliament amending this unintended and silly classification. This is exactly what happened here in Ireland and some other countries.