MidlandToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). This letter is in response to a column about behaviour on local trails, published July 27.
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If I may comment again regarding e-bikes, I completely agree with Andrew Philips. I believe it is simply a matter of communication/education/awareness.
As I mentioned previously, I walk and ride the trails every day. The vast majority of e-bike riders are seniors who ride at a leisurely pace and provide warning of approach to others, myself included. How many seniors will we put at risk if we force them onto the roads?
I now use my e-bike for all my errands for which I used to drive my car. Is this not what our eco-warriors (and government) are demanding?
The most dangerous riders are the “spandex bikers,” as a previous letter writer had so aptly described them. They fly along the paths at more than 40 km/h, have no warning devices and no consideration for others. I know that because my bike has a speedometer. Theirs don’t.
Finally, if I keep my e-bike at pedal assist or the battery is not charged, it then becomes simply a bicycle and, therefore, should it not then be immune to the ban? How on earth do you enforce that? As always, bureaucrats resort to the easiest solution, for them — ban it.
Steve Rowe
Midland
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