To the editor: The historical past of e-bikes on crowded seashore trails within the South Bay may need identified that not all e-bikes are created equal.
One kind of e-bike, usually with thick tires like those pictured with the story, are actually electrical bikes. Their motors can take them as much as 28 mph, they do not require pedaling to maneuver, and so they’re too harmful to be allowed on crowded climbing trails.
The second kind of e-bike is a “pedal help” mannequin. They do not transfer except the rider steps on the pedals and the motors cease at 20 mph. They’re no extra harmful than non-e-bikes.
With each kinds of bikes, a rider’s frequent sense and concern for others is in fact extra necessary than what makes the wheels flip.
Paul Bergman, Pasadena
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To the editor: The most recent article on e-bikes was simply extra crime hysteria.
As said within the article, there have been no reported collisions alongside the mentioned space in 2023 or 2022. The information doesn’t help the concept that e-bikes are unsafe. As a substitute, the article is stuffed with anecdotes from residents who largely complain about being nearly a nuisance.
E-bikes have the facility to rework our society for the higher, together with combating local weather change and decreasing visitors and street fatalities. But people scared of change expend a disproportionate quantity of vitality opposing their adoption.
Melyssa Guerry, Culver Metropolis
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To the editor: I’m a 25-plus yr resident of Hermosa Seashore. Whereas e-bikers are a brand new hazard on the Seashore, the larger drawback is one thing the town has by no means addressed.
For its total two-mile stretch between Redondo Seashore and Manhattan Seashore to the north, Hermosa Seashore is alone in its enforced sharing of automobiles (together with bicycles) with pedestrians. I journey this stretch a minimum of twice per week and barely do I not encounter young children darting out and in of my path, or folks strolling canine on prolonged leads blocking my path, or teams of individuals decides to cease and chat in the course of the seashore.
I needed to cringe most on the line, “But there have been no reported collisions on the Seashore this yr or final, which [Hermosa Beach Police Chief Paul] LeBaron is credited with efficient policing.”
So long as I’ve cycled Stranden, I’ve by no means seen any enforcement. Moreover, I’ve had my share of accidents, and never as soon as have I reported them, so the measure the boss makes use of is missing to that extent.
I nonetheless journey Strand as a result of it is the one sport on the town, but it surely’s undoubtedly a catastrophe ready to occur.
Todd Koerner, Hermosa Seashore
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To the editor: My buddies and I’ve been using the bike path from West LA to Manhattan Seashore each Saturday for greater than 30 years. Neither of us has an e-bike, though I actually respect the expertise and utility of such a motorcycle if ridden proper.
The issue is that most of the riders don’t use them correctly, particularly the bikes that don’t require the rider to pedal in any respect. These bikes usually weigh greater than twice the burden of an everyday bike and journey at speeds far higher than the typical bicycle owner.
This mixture, together with the carelessness of most of the riders – to not point out these with surfboards on trailers or hooked up to the facet of the bike, and even held by one arm – will increase the hazard to different cyclists, walkers and joggers.
Training is all the time welcome. However till there may be both a ban on e-bikes, particularly people who require no pedal enter from the rider, or an affordable enforcement mechanism, the bike lane will develop into more and more harmful and unwelcoming.
Joe Hilberman, Westwood