PA has now made it legal to operate a bicycle with electric assist.

[happyslug]

http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/li/uconsCheck.cfm?yr=2014&sessInd=0&act=154

The change was adopted on October 22, 2014, effective 60s days later, December 21, 2014.

Thus a bicycle with a 20 inch or larger wheel can have an electric assist of no more then 750 watts installed NO LONGER HAS to be licensed by the State.

Any operator of a bicycle with electric assist MUST BE OVER 16 YEARS OF AGE.

[meow2u3]

1. Goody, goody

Now I can find a motor-assisted bike to help me get my ass off the computer and outside getting exercise.

I live just south of the Poconos, where the terrain is too hilly for an out-of-shape slob like me to ride a traditional bike.

[happyslug]

2. See my report of the LEEDS electric assist add on

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1207413

Through I have been looking at the following which has a 750 watt engine:

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?ui=2&ik=153f83721c&view=fimg&th=1498b33985768ead&attid=0.0.1&disp=emb&realattid=ii_hzpnrkhc0_148465c983a49b12&attbid=ANGjdJ_dgHUiGI0jcixW1gNJVRXv6HiMhEUu3qRIczCCI0lIHk1XnBsSy8ANm2wO5WxT0geRq4tWciUawFUcjoJZKEwD87vpdQRCzU1ong4xQGzeK8eE3op68EwwUzg&sz=w900-h830&ats=1421622492305&rm=1498b33985768ead&zw&atsh=1

http://www.zelectricvehicle.com/28.html

The home page showing all models they produce, including models more powerful then 750 watts:

http://www.zelectricvehicle.com/

[Panich52]

3. Now itll actually make sense f/ some bikes to be governed by Motor Vehicle Code

Yep. Even if a person is the only 'motor,' bicycles are regulated by PA Motor Vehicle Code. But unless the cop doesn't like you (such as you're a damn out-of-town college student in his small town) police tend to ignore it.

Might save some lives if they enforced rules , like bikes having to heed stop signs and traffic lights or ride with traffic...

[happyslug]

4. Actually the studies all indicate that bicyclist do follow the vehicle code, as well as motorists...

Which is NOT that high a standard for I have seen Motorists violate the State Vehicle Code every day and the Police do NOT give tickets.

Here is a report from Austin Texas and who ended up with tickets in Auto-bike accidents (hint it was rarely the Auto driver):

http://bicycleaustin.info/justice/

Report most accidents are the fault of Motorists:

http://azbikelaw.org/blog/manner-and-fault-in-bicyclist-traffic-fatalities-arizona-2009/

Toronto Canada Bike accidents:

Table 1: Most Frequent Crash Types

Crash Type Number of Cases...............Relative...................Frequency
Drive Out at Controlled Intersection.......284.........................12.20%
Motorist Overtaking.............................277.........................11.90%
Motorist Opens Door in front of Bicyclist..276.........................11.90%
Motorist Left Turn - Facing Bicyclist.......248.........................10.70%
Motorist Right Turn - Other...................224..........................9.60%
Motorist Right Turn at Red Light.............179..........................7.70%
Drive Out from Lane or Driveway............179..........................7.70%
Ride Out At Controlled Intersection...........73.........................3.10%
Wrong Way Bicyclist..............................59..........................2.50%
Ride Out At Mid-block.............................51.........................2.20%

http://www.sharetheroad.ca/what-are-the-dangers-in-terms-of-cycling-safety--p128277

The deadliest accidents for cyclist is a motorist opening their door in front of a cyclist. To avoid such accidents most cyclists ride at least one door length away from any parked car. This causes cars traveling in the same lane to be frustrated but it is the safest way to bike.

As to actual accidents, the studies tend to show that when there is an accident it is the MOTORISTS who is generally at fault:

Ed Beighe, who mans the Arizona bike blog Azbikelaw, crunched some numbers on fault from his state and found that 44 percent of fatalities from bike-car crashes in 2009 were determined to be the fault of the cyclist, while 56 percent were the fault of a motor vehicle driver. The most common collision was when a driver struck a cyclist from behind.

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety published data on contributing factors in bike-car crashes. It found that in 2009, cyclists were at fault in 49 percent of crashes, while drivers were at fault in 51 percent. Failing to yield to right of way was the most frequent cause of the snarls.

And the Washington Post recently mentioned a 2004 report from DC showing cyclists more likely than motorists to be at fault in a crash.

But a older study from Hawaii had a different conclusion. Using police-reported crash data from 1986 to 1991, researchers found that motorists were at fault in approximately 83.5 percent of incidents, whereas bicyclists were at fault in only 16.5 percent of incidents.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2011/05/20/136462246/when-bikes-and-cars-collide-whos-more-likely-to-be-at-fault

Now some of this is perception. For example which of the following is safer? Two four lane roads that intersect and are governed by only Stop Signs or the same intersection governed by a Traffic light? If you said the intersection governed by STOP SIGNS you would have been correct. When an intersection is converted from Stop Signs to Traffic lights the number of accidents INCREASE, when the reverse occurs, i.e. Traffic Lights are replaced by Stop Signs accidents decline. The problem is most people BELIEVE traffic lights are safer and that is why they cause more accidents.

When people THINK something is unsafe they take precautions and thus avoid accidents, on the other hand when they think the situation is "safe" they drop their watch and end up getting into accidents.

This can be seen when it comes to Drivers and Cell Phones. When you have two or more people in a car, they talk but when it comes to a dangerous place in the road all of them tend to stop and look at the potential danger. The amount of Distraction is minimal and in fact the other people in the vehicle may point out the danger even if it had nothing to do with the ongoing conversation. When someone is on a cell phone and approaches the same dangerous location, the person they are talking to can NOT see the location and continues to talk. Being talked to, people will talk back and that is a distraction that leads to accidents (Thus "Hand's Free" Cell Phones has have very little affect on accidents involving Cell Phones).

This same factor comes up with bicycles. Drivers often see and report what Bicyclists do that is illegal, but when done is done safety (I have often gone through lights with no other traffic in the intersections for the traffic control system, while they are suppose to work for bicycles, often do not and after a while you learn which ones don't work and you work around that problem by going through such intersections when it is safe to do so).

Yes, I have seen Cyclist violate the Traffic Code, but more often I see Motorist violating the same traffic code. The worse cases involve NOT yielding to pedestrians at intersections, NOT giving Pedestrians part of the road in roads without sidewalks, that is a violation of the vehicle code for in such situations Pedestrian are to walk on the road, unless it is a limited access highway where pedestrians are forbidden, Passing a bicyclist or pedestrians and NOT giving them adequate safety distance and otherwise acting like neither pedestrians or bicyclists are on the road.

This is why bicyclists get so few traffic tickets, in most cases it is the MOTORIST that causes the accident not the Cyclist and Police give tickets to people who CAUSE an accident.

Some other reports on bicycle accidents, such as 80% of the Cyclist hurt are male:

http://www.pedbikeinfo.org/data/factsheet_crash.cfm

http://www.iihs.org/iihs/topics/t/pedestrians-and-bicyclists/fatalityfacts/bicycles

As to Motorist violating the traffic code, the biggest auto violation I have run across is parking against the flow of Traffic (and it is in the PA Traffic Code and has been since at least the 1920s). I see cars parked AGAINST the flow of traffic all the time and that is ILLEGAL, you are to park on the right hand side of the flow of traffic NOT on the left hand side UNLESS it is a one way street (if you park on the left on a one way street you are still in the flow of traffic NOT against the flow if you park on the left on a two way road). This is safety hazards to pedestrians, bicyclist and motorists, but the police rarely give ticket for it.

I have seen drivers swing around bicyclists to make a turn, cut within inches of a cyclists, pull out of intersections ignoring bicyclists (Motorcyclists also complain of this) and otherwise act like they did not see the bicyclists (Motorcyclists also complain of NOT being seen by people driving cars). Motorists rarely see themselves as violating the traffic code (for example SPEEDING, which is a violation of the traffic code) but when a bicyclist violate a rule they see it as something major, even if the violation has to do with the fact motorists are speeding.