When are the environmentally aware folks of Nova Scotia, and the rest of Canada, going to rise up and speak out against the ridiculous and archaic laws forbidding the riding of small non-licensed electric and gas-powered scooters and two-wheeled “bicycles” on the streets, just like any other bicycle? On one hand, I am continually reading about how we must find more efficient modes of transportation to “green” the planet, and the next I am being threatened with a ticket for actually doing so.
There is absolutely no reason why I shouldn’t be able to ride my little electric scooter/bicycle everywhere that a pedalled bicycle can go, and yet I’m an “outlaw” if I do so. These prohibitions are in place from another age – where only teenage “hoodlums” rode mini-bikes and mopeds, but it’s time to wake up and smell the 21st century. My little eZip 500 can go 10-15 kms on $0.20 worth of electricity. It is smaller than a pedalled bicycle, and has good brakes and 12-inch pneumatic tires. It is lighter, more maneuverable, slower and therefore “safer” than many pedalled bicycles; especially those you now see towing unhappy children and infants behind in these deadly bicycle trailers.
Currently there is a bizarre exception that allows electric scooters if they can also be pedalled, which has led to the manufacture of strange looking conveyances with tiny ineffectual pedals bolted on as an afterthought. This is beyond ridiculous.
If my eZip runs out of juice, it can also be pushed along by foot. For the record, this is how the very first bicycles were powered as well! I spoke with a company in Dartmouth that has 2 dozen beautiful electric scooters sitting in its warehouse that can as of now only be used on private property. What a waste. I suppose if he welded on a couple of child’s tricycle-style foot pedals to the front wheel to satisfy law enforcement, he could then sell these wonderful units to commuters looking to go green, without the disadvantages of a pedalled bicycle e.g. limited range, hard to store, and not to mention showing up at work in a lather of perspiration and ready for a nap.
There is no reason why these eco-friendly devices should be banned by laws left over from the 1950s, made when a fill-up of gas was next to free, AND you got a toaster. I suppose as long as our law-makers are throw-backs to that era, we must expect resistance to progressive change?
Until I start hearing more folks support our being able to take advantage of the hundreds of makes of scooters and mini-powered “bicycles” which are currently and inexplicably still banned in Canada, I ask that you try to keep your letters about “greening” our transportation to yourselves. If you’re not part of the solution….
As long as I am “forbidden” to use my eZip, I suppose I must be content to fire up my trusty old ’69 T-bird and let it’s worn-out 429 leave a trail of leaking oil and roiling exhaust smoke behind as I rumble up to the supermarket.
And to the officer of the “bridge police” that rudely threatened me with a summons…Yes, my scooter IS a bicycle – it has two wheels (bi), and they’re round (cycle)…
— baD mR fRosTy
This article appears in Oct 15-21, 2009.
I usually try to add something to a discussion, but I just have to say “You GO, baD mR fRosTy”.
I agree with pretty much everything you said…
We’re consistently encouraged (if not ordered) by our government to do things “greener”, but they’ve yet to have legislation catch up with their “encouragement”.
Maybe we should get together all those overqualified workers in the temp agency post, and put them on an overly-funded committee to find and abolish stupidity in government…
I see a guy riding to work on an electric bicycle -the one with pedals- nearly every day…
bzzzzzzzzzzzz, as he zooms by. are you saying that because he has pedals, he’s allowed to ride it and you aren’t? Those things look pretty kicky, though I’m not sure you’d find me on one of them.
I don’t fare well with the low, skateboardish type vehicles.
“Maybe we should get together all those overqualified workers in the temp agency post, and put them on an overly-funded committee to find and abolish stupidity in government…”
I’m in!
I have a friend who works in Halifax & llives in downtown Dartmouth. He drives over the bridge everyday a waves at them as he goes up the bicycle lane to Halifax…No license, NO insurence, No bridge fare & he’s laughing all the way to the bank. His new Litium Ion high capacity storage battery gets him from Dartmouth to Elmsdale with juice left over & yes he has these two stupid little ‘bike’ peddles that you can barely make the damn thing move on flat pavement.
But its legal….I wonder how long before the dictators in Government , pile hundreds of regulations & tax grabs all over these ?!?
Gidget…indeed.
More…I have been lusting after a Li-ion battery for my eZip for a while…they cost more than the scooter though, but they’re a must for distance.
ZZZ…yep, the “add-on” pedals make him legal, and me not. I am not aware of any “threshold of performance” regarding the pedals however, and am designing a bolt on pedal set to go under the chassis and spin, say, a large wire brush against the pavement. Even if it only moves the scooter a few feet, it would be (for now) a defence against this stupid law, and the even stupider cops that enforce it…
Desi….maybe so, but I’m a “green’ asshole.
Nice El Degas, btw – been playing long?
Yeah, Canada has lots of stupid, outdated laws:
In Glace Bay, all cyclists are required to carry a kerosene lantern which can be seen plainly.
Canada’s criminal code states that anyone, “offending a public place with a bad smell” is liable to two years in jail.
Toronto and Halifax both have laws forbidding anyone to “spy” on people in city parks.
If you happen upon an injured migratory bird in a Canadian national park, you are required to kill it immediately. If not, you can be fined $300.
In Ontario: if you release a racoon in an area other than its own the fine is $25,000.
Halifax: You may not water your lawn while it’s raining.
Nova Scotia’s Baby Chick Protection Act makes it illegal to sell, give or display an artifically colored chick. Doing so will bring a fine of $100 or 30 days in jail.
Halifax County has a bylaw that makes it illegal to knock, ring a doorbell or shout after 10 pm.
Halifax, Nova Scotia has a bylaw that states that grass on the boulevard (between the curb and sidewalk) must not be longer than 6 inches (15 centimetres) tall. If a dispute arises, the grass will be measured by city officials.
Citizens may not publicly remove bandages.
You may not pay for a fifty-cent item with only pennies.
Alberta: It is illegal to set fire to the wooden leg of a wooden legged man.
B.C.: It is illegal to kill a sasquatch.
Guelph is classified as a no-pee zone.
Oshawa: it’s illegal to climb trees.
Toronto: You can’t drag a dead horse down Yonge St. on a Sunday.
Uxbridge: Residents are not allowed to have an Internet connection faster than 56k.
Montreal: Citizens may not relieve themselves or spit on the street. Punishable by a fine of over $100 .
well then HKM….how do these hypocrites in office expect us to take them seriously until they get rid of all these asinine laws?
Hey you think we’re bad, try Singapore :
http://imgs.inkfrog.com/pix/bobs-boy/bb346…
Oh no, Miles, your not going to force me to be serious tonight! = )
I guess the point I was making is there are outdated laws, there are stupid laws, and there are laws that should be but are not. Since my political/judicial knowledge is minimal, I can’t say too much about it, but my understanding is that since law enacting is a tedious and drawn out affair, politicians won’t move on making or dissolving laws until enough people get together to motivate them to do so. Which was Frosty’s point, as well, I guess.
no, not tonight….That was a dig at Frosty really, not you. I took exception to: “I ask that you try to keep your letters about “greening” our transportation to yourselves. If you’re not part of the solution….”
Dismissing the government’s efforts to promote green transportation because they haven’t figured out that the handful of electric bicycle drivers have been inconvenienced seems a bit silly to me. Change happens when there is enough drive to make it happen. Scooter drivers unite!
yeah, that one line will probably keep me out of the Herald, lol…I wish I’d phrased it completely differently, but Ya can’t undo send…
But I’m also not sure what you mean by “handful of electric bicycle drivers have been inconvenienced…”?
“Inconvenienced”?! Dude, there’s an outright ban in effect, and we are not able to legally ride AT ALL except on private property…at risk is a fine and seizure of the scooter by some lunk-head law enforcement “official”….
That’s a bit more than an “inconvenience”, innit?
….like the bridge cop that actually ran after me on my return to Dartmouth, lol, yelling (and I’m not making this up) Stop STOP! In the name of a peace officer, you must stop!
I had no choice but to stop then, ’cause I was cracking up at this fat rent-a-cop wheezing after me as I made my 10 KM/h break for freedom!
Apparently, he had watched me scoot over to Halifax, and had waited expectantly (and, I assume, hopefully, lol) for my return…
I was gonna go ahead and let him write me the summons and revel in the test case in court…would have been funny publicity for my band, heh heh…but in the end I chickened out when he said if I lost it could effect my driver’s licence (kinda need it, I’m a trucker)…which I’m not sure if I believe, but I was about to leave the country for 6 months anyway, so I gave him a fake name for the ticket…
Anyway, Miles, I guess the bit about the environmentalist letters, was meant to address the fact that, in many cases, the most vocal opponents of “motorized” (with tiny motors) bicycles and scooters happen to be pedal-type “green” bicyclists themselves, believe it or not!
Talk about hypocrisy…
and the reason that there are only a “hanful” of us, Miles, is, I think, kinda obvious, isn’t it?
If you go to places where they are NOT banned, they’re everywhere…trust me.
bMf
Holy fuck.
TL;DR.
As a libertarian, I agree with you. In the meantime, fire up the old T-Bird, global warming is a hoax.
Any man who strictly adheres to the letter of the law will never be justified by it.
Well, I consider it an inconvenience because you know it’s illegal to drive yet do it anyway. In my opinion, complaining about getting fined or yelled at for it isn’t valid. You should be complaining to those who have an ability to correct the obvious oversight in the law that prevents these things from being on the roads or sidewalks or wherever is most appropriate. If there is a company in dartmouth that sells them, they would probably also have an interest in getting council to change some by-lays. See if you can’t get a councillor or two on board….go the the media (other than the coast) and generate some interest. Non-scooter drivers like myself might support the issue too.
’69 T-Bird – That’s a sweet ride! Wouldn’t want to pay for the gas though. Those tricked out golfcarts in the latest issue of Wired look fun too!
‘Just do it.’
Is your electric bicycle ‘illegal’ ?
Just do it.
Round up all the owners of these you can…organize your own protest and cross the bridge en mass…but tell the networks to be ready. Tell the cops too. Tell the crown prosecutor to be there there dressed in formal garb. (Request the powdered whig if they’re willing 😉 and do it.
Guy Fawkes masks – I once utilized one of these masks on a stick during a protest here in Ontario – not only did I avoid criminal charges by not disguising myself, but from a distance, I appeared to be two people!!
Del
Many of those old “You-can’t-eat-peanuts-in-church” kinds of laws are from other times and circumstances, and have no enfore-ability today because they haven’t been invoked in so many years.
No need to worry about the kerosene-lantern requirement. There is some kind of “statute of limitations” about old laws that outlive their usefulness—meaning they can’t just arbitrarily start enforcing it again just because it is still technically “on the books.”
It is actually an expensive and difficult process to “remove” old laws, so sometimes they are simply allowed to “expire” rather than be officially revoked.
What is wrong with bike trailers? I take my two kids to daycare in the bike trailer every day. They love it, and our interaction with car drivers has been nothing but respectful.
I would say, Dawn, that given the high rate of automobile/bicycle accidents, that these trailers place your children at a slightly higher risk of death and injury.
Sort of a “three-for-one” deal if you get hit by a bus, innit?
I’m an athletic person with a drivers license, decades of experience mountain biking and extreme skiing and am safer on my Segway scooter when most drivers are in their car. This is subjective.