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When the kids decide to take their E-bikes on I-5, you know something is wrong with their decision making skills: https://www.reddit.com/r/Seattle/comments/1sjv7ua/teens_on_e...

Yes, people freak out when they see a kid on an e-bike on a crowded freeway.



Surely this isn't as stupid as an SUV trying to take light rail though right?

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/how...

Maybe Seattle is the problem ;)


I remember hearing about that kind of problem in Europe all the time 20 years ago.


I'll never forget that time my mom accidentally drove straight into a tram tunnel. One of the "we can laugh about it now" stories.


Do they really need a new law to prevent bikes on freeways? I think that's already highly illegal.


It's legal in Oregon and Montana as long as you stay in the shoulder. You can walk there too. I can't remember the law in Washington.

In western states with a lot of rural places only serviced by interstate they sometimes never passed blanket prohibition against non-motorized traffic on the interstate property.


> I can't remember the law in Washington.

I'd bet I-5 in Seattle is bicycles prohibited, but there's no blanket prohibition of bicycles on freeways. Like you said, there's a lot of parts of Washington where the freeway is the only reasonable road, so you can't prohibit bicycles or pedestrians.

Bikes that have motors and don't fit the e-bike tiers are motorcycles ... and could potentially be legal to operate on a bicycle prohibited freeway, but they'd need to be registered and it looks like these don't have plates, and the operator would need a DOT motorcycle helmet which was not present, and I'd bet these are also missing out on the lights and stuff you need too.


You can bike at some places on I-90 in Washington state where better options aren't available. I don't think it applies to E-bikes though, or at least the ones that can go faster than 15 MPH.


It is/was legal on rural interstates in Washington. I've cycled down I90 in roughly the North Bend area (in the late 90's).


Yes, sometimes the interstate is the only reasonable route through a pass in the western US.


You know, the law banning kids from driving vehicles that can go over a certain speed is also already on the books. The new law is just a clarification that no, you can't be an 11 year old going 40 MPH with an unlicensed E-bike.

The big problem is just Seattle being incredibly underpoliced and really no laws under homicide are really enforced or punished.


Ok, but riding an ebike on the interstate is already illegal. If the problem you're trying to solve is kids taking ebikes onto the interstate, then you don't need any new laws


Reasonable people freak out when they see that on a freeway

There are also plenty of unreasonable people who freak out when they see that on a not-freeway




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