Generally I tend to have a favorable view of e-bikes (electric bicycles), but as an increasing number hit the city streets I have picked up on a safety issue that hadn't occurred to me previously. The issue that worries me is that most of the e-bikes I've seen appear, to my eye, remarkably similar to real scooters. The only sure way to identify them is to look for pedals or lack of a license plate. Unfortunately, I'm not always in a position to have a clear view.
Why is this a safety issue? When I see a car, bicycle, motorcycle, scooter, or pedestrian on the road I automatically expect certain probabilities of behaviour they may take dependent on what category they're in -- and in response to likely behaviour I can take certain defensive or cautionary actions to minimize the chances of an accident. The safety issue comes up because it's too easy to confuse e-bikes with scooters.
This wouldn't be so much a problem if e-bikes stuck to one set of 'rules of the road'. Legally, e-bikes are required to behave like normal bicycles but, people being people, I've all too often witnessed e-bikes driving like scooters one moment, and then abruptly acting like bicycles the next, and vice versa, making their actions appear surprising and startling.
And from a mutual safety perspective, one thing to avoid on the road, whether you're a pedestrian, bicycle, motorcycle, scooter or car, is surprising or startling the drivers around you.
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