EBIKES & THROTTLE  SAFETY:

1. In both North American survey, 60% of e-bike owners said they felt safer riding their e-bike. Another 42% said their e-bike helped them avoid crashes. Stated reasons are: enough quick acceleration to clear an intersection, keeping pace with traffic, and improving self-balance at higher speeds.
    

2. Other studies in both the United States and Asia found that e-bike owners generally felt safer and tended to obey traffic rules (stopping at stop signs, hand signaling, alerting presence) compared to traditional riders. Participants noted that e-bikes boosted their confidence on portions of the route that interacted with traffic. 
    

3. In the same studies, riders said the throttle made it easier to stop at stop signs because they did not have to worry about making drivers impatient. Other participants felt very comfortable riding an e-bike simply because of its flexibility to operate as a conventional bike.

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COMPARATIVE SPEEDS: 

1. A study that compared speeds of ebike (class-1 and class-2) and bicycle found e-bikes are slightly faster on roads, but are slower on shared-use paths. 
    

2. Counter-intuitively, an observation study in Colorado found the average e-bike speed was less (13.8 mph) than the average conventional bike speed (14.5 mph). This may reflect the demographics of e-bike riders (based on research, e-bike riders are older, and thus perhaps more cautious and aware of their speeds given that most e-bikes have a speedometer). 

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CHANGING PERCEPTIONS & PLANNING:

1. A Common adverse reaction to e-bikes is their potentially increased speed makes other trails or street users feel unsafe. Yet evidence suggests that e-bikes change riders’ attention and perception of safety compared to traditional bikes. 
    

2. The American Planning Association declared 2023 as “The Year of the Ebike.”  At the core of the infrastructure planning is the notion of “Safety in Numbers”. When there’s an increase of pedestrians, cyclists, ebike riders, scooters and other micro-mobility, motorists take greater precautions driving more prudently. This reduces conflict points and improves safety for all users/travelers, thereby instituting a culture that promotes multi-modal transportation.