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    • By

    Monday July 23rd, 2012

    Posted at 11:53pm

    City News

    Windsor City Council voted Monday night to ban power assisted vehicles (eBikes) on the City of Windsor’s shared paths and multi-use trails such as the riverfront and the Ganatchio trail.

    The ban will be in effect unless certain paths/trails are specifically designated by Council as “eBike Friendly”.

    Council has asked City Administrators to prepare a report outlining if any trails within the city’s park system can be eBike friendly. Should any of the City’s trails be designated, they will have a set speed limit of 10km/h.

    The Province of Ontario legalized eBikes under a pilot program in 2006 and permanently permitted them to be operated like bicycles as of 2009. Operators do not need a license or insurance but must wear helmets and their vehicles must be equipped with pedals.

    eBikes and power assisted vehicles were also banned from city sidewalks.

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    • Tina_tuna_

      I look out for you guys driving ebikes all the time but so many riders don’t pay attention when there riding there ebikes I personally think they are dangerous & not safe at all & If your driving one you should have to have a license & insurance just like the rest of us all the same rules should apply to ebike driving. Plus I’ve personally my self have been cut off by so many ebikes & It’s really starting to piss me off cause we are a bigger cars or trucks & If we hit you were the ones mostly at fault for it which isn’t far on us drives….

    • Mike Swiech

      So if they decided to put a ban on Ebikes then I think they should have put a ban on bikes in general on those paths. I have had to avoid and move out of the way for people that can not ride properly on a regular bike. I also note that they are banned from sidewalks, well so are regular bikes too, but I see them riding all the time on the sidewalk. Motorist complain that Ebikes run red lights, don’t have proper tail lights etc…but so do people that are riding bikes. Bike riders swerve in and out of traffic, run red lights, don’t have proper reflectors and equipment as well. Sorry for the rant, but just one more thing for people to gripe and complain about and no I am not a Ebike rider. :D

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000515168571 James McKenzie

      About time. I have found so many E-bikers just plain rude they honk their horn and expect you to jump. Pedestrians always have the right away the trails have always been meant for the person walking. People on bikes that you manually perform is for exercise. E-Bikes are meant for transportation only not exercise so If you want exercise get a regular bike or walk then use the trails

    • ebiker2012

      Have things seriously come so far as to not understand that bikes, electric or conventional are not only for recreation? Some people, for whatever reason, choose to use this as their only transportation? Are the car and combustion engine drivers so far removed from reality that this is the only equation that makes sense? Not drunks or idiots, but students, doctors, lawyers and
      If people have trouble paying attention or following the laws behind a sterring wheel, they will have trouble on an ebike. Bad drivers are bad drivers regardless of what they are driving. People that swerve and try to run others down deserve to be treated with the same respect that is shared with people that kick animals and small children. There is going to come a day of reckoning and this will boil over. I feel sorry for the families of those that will be involved and hope that calmer heads will prevail before it is to late.

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    • Greybeard

      It makes no sense. Bicyclist hit speeds of 20mph on our local trail, and on occasion brush back a pedestrian or two. Banning ebikes is banning the people who still like to commune with nature, listen to the birds, see the wildlife, but whose bodies have let them down. I’m 69 years, but injuries prohibit more than a full hundred painful yards of pedaling. I still love to be out on the trails. I pay my taxes that support such trails, but not just for the lycra clad butts in the air. Now I see they have their noses in the air as well if people less physically capable as they are, can’t share the trail.

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