Crime Cops on horseback in California are cracking down on illegal e-bikes - 🐴>🚲

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Police departments have begun paying more attention to electric bicycles and cracking down on models that are illegal for street use. Now another police department in California is demonstrating how they’re using old school transportation into the operation with horse-mounted police officers.

As electric bikes become even more popular options for alternative transportation, the number of e-bikes on the streets is greater than ever.
Most electric bikes are completely legal for street use, falling under the standard bicycle classification of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. They’re a great way to get around without the cost (financial or environmental) of a car.

But higher power electric bikes, many that lack bike pedals and thus are effectively like small motorbikes, have become popular in the last few years. Teenagers and young adults have especially taken to such models, commonly produced by companies like Sur Ron and Talaria, among others.

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The Newport Beach Police Department recently shared an image of its mounted police officers stopping and citing a rider of a Sur Ron electric motorbike. In this case, the bike isn’t an electric bicycle but rather more like a trail bike, similar to a slightly smaller electric dirt bike. These models can usually reach speeds of around 45 mph (72 km/h) and have a power rating of around 5-6x higher than most electric bikes in the US.
As the NBPD explained:

“The mounted unit is used for several functions, including patrolling the boardwalk. Our horses offer increased visibility (both for the public to see our officers and for officers to see their surroundings from a higher vantage point). In this incident, officers issued a citation for unsafe operation and failure to follow posted signs while operating an electric bike.”
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Interestingly, in this case the police don’t seem to have confiscated the bike or even cited the rider for using a non street-legal e-bike. Instead, the citations were for unsafe operation and failure to follow road signs.

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It’s not the first time we’ve seen a crackdown on these types of e-bikes though, such as the Sur Ron above that was confiscated by the Manhattan Beach Police Department in Manhattan Beach, California.

These cases of crackdowns on high-powered off-road electric trail bikes are becoming more common. Police departments around the country become more aware of e-bike laws and the difference between the majority of law abiding e-bikes and the few higher power, non street-legal models like these.

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As electric bikes become even more popular options for alternative transportation, the number of e-bikes on the streets is greater than ever.
Most electric bikes are completely legal for street use, falling under the standard bicycle classification of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. They’re a great way to get around without the cost (financial or environmental) of a car.
Click to expand...
This isn't true in the UK. E-scooter and E-bikes are illegal on and off road.

The crackdown against these things seems to be rolling out across the west. Why now? Who knows. These things have been a fucking menace to drivers for years, not to mention a danger to kids who whizz out at 10mph straight onto roads that they have no sense of danger on.

Would the E-bike and E-scooter be the way to escape the 15-minute cities?
 
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ZazietheBeast said:
Cute. Now do something about the out of control crimes next.
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thinking this be what they call that broken-windows policing you see, it may sound strange but for every 100 brocolli-tops on illegal e-bikes you cite, you'll get one less jamal magdumping into a grandma. Jamal just picks up on the culture of law-abiding.
 
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Bog-standard Poster said:
This isn't true in the UK. E-scooter and E-bikes are illegal on and off road.

The crackdown against these things seems to be rolling out across the west. Why now? Who knows. These things have been a fucking menace to drivers for years, not to mention a danger to kids who whizz out at 10mph straight onto roads that they have no sense of danger on.

Would the E-bike and E-scooter be the way to escape the 15-minute cities?
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E-bikes were an issue when I lived in NY. Delivery guys would just mount the sidewalk doing like 15mph. When people were like, "Uh gaiz...this is no good" they were called racist because a lot of the delivery guys were some flavor of Asian.

I found it mildly amusing as I waved goodbye.
 
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"Nooooo you can't use this cheap and ecologic way of transporting yourself, you have to either buy a car you can't afford or ride the bus with the other plebeians"
If people have unsafe or illegal behavior with vehicles, then punish them for doing so, like it's already the case with cars.

Honestly if they weren't super illegal where I live, I think I would enjoy those e-bikes. They're like $5k, have an autonomy of 100 miles, and to fill up the entire battery costs $2 worth of electricity.
 
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Some parts of Cali have always used mounted police, but theyre used in pedestrian oriented places where vehicles are normally blocked off (or temporarily blocked off for events). If a horse is there, its probably not a good idea to be riding a bike or whatever anyways, as its usually filled with people. The horse is used over a car because the police can idle around or slowly patrol, with the plus of seeing over a crowd. It also helps create a "positive" image of police, whatever you can call that.

Anyways, ebikes and escooters are great. Cars are expensive. It's nice to not have to think about gas all the time. Waste of time harassing people on bikes/scooters when the state is so full of fent zombies and homeless.
 
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Keep in mind many cities have given up on stopping "youths" riding dirt bikes, 4 wheelers and side by sides on the highway.
It would be racist to stop a 13 year old from operating a motor vehicle that was built for off road use on the highway.
After one "youth" wrecked a pocket bike running from the cops most cities ordered to cops to not chase them.

If you are going to allow mobs of underage kids on off road vehicles to take over the city I can't see getting upset about someone not having pedals on their e bike.

Personally I wish they would stop the mobs of "youths".
I suspect most if not all of the vehicles are stolen.
 
The Last Stand said:
They're more worried about "illegal e-bikes" than illegal immigrants.
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Or theft , murder , rape and assault... Basically any crime this is basically padding their pockets with seised property which is damn near impossible to get it back from the government or fines either way .
 
I seen one of those little dirtbike looking ebikes for sale outside a house nearby for like $500 leaf money and I was tempted to buy it. It looked like it would be pretty fucking fun as fuck to take up the logging roads. But, I had no idea how good it would be or whether it was actually worth paying that much for. Reading this article makes it sound like it actually would have been pretty fucking fun as fuck to take up the logging roads. Oh well. Then again, you can sometimes find real dirtbikes at those prices so meh.
 
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