micromobility - Ebikes, scooters, longboards: Whatever floats your goat, this is micromobility

Same exact argument for pot vs booze. Both legal or both not. And I 100% agree with you. On the roads, under 16 is a no-no. Speeding is a no-no. Enforce that and leave the rest of us alone.

Not that in a million years do I see "leave us alone" as an actual possibility.

In cars, if horsepower was measured to be a determining factor in being allowed to buy one, then that'd be the peak power, so it's weird to go by rated power in watts for usage rather than the peak power output on e-bikes. Generally the most productive way to measure "power" is power-to-weight-ratio anyway.

To play devils advocate a bit, cars do require formal licensing, and because everyone has one, the government has more reason to invest infrastructure into their oversight. But on the flip side, they're also about a million times more dangerous. Here in the US the government generally wants to be as "hands off" as possible, but I know that's not the same in other parts of the world so I'm sure I look at things a bit differently than you do on account of being American.

And do companies actually sell high power e-bikes? My understanding has generally been that folks modify them. You can buy a super car from the factory, but both cars and bikes have the potential for "hot-rodding" and performance tuning, which does feel like it complcates preemptive oversight like regulations.

Personally I also really enjoy people being able to hack on, customize and tune the tech and machines that are part of their lives. The big problem is how you operate the vehicle, but there's strong argument to be made either way whether the scale of the issue means that preventing it is necessary since consequences are harder to enforce, or if on the other side, it's more important to preserve individual freedom to make, and do, and tinker, knowing that some people will misuse that ability and won't be caught, with real potential consequences for people around them.

I tend to lean more towards the latter, but I think the former absolutely has merits and can empathetise with that perspective. (we're all but product of our social conditioning lol, how very American of me)

I definitely agree about consequences. That's a really simple one you do shit that can get people hurt and you should get in trouble for it, idealy before someone does actually get hurt.

Somehow nobody cares about overpowered cars like overpowered ebikes. Why is selling a car that can go 240 or 400 kmh okay while selling a bike that can go 45 kmh not okay? IMO stopping both would be great.

Imo, no matter how fast the car can go, there's still limited infrastructure that allow them to do so(highway), but overpowered ebike is ridden everywhere, especially pedestrian heavy area, and also easily access by anyone of any age, where car is limited to people who have to go through a driving lesson to get a licence.

Secondly, your chance of survival when crashing while driving a car at 40kmph is significantly higher than your chance of survival when crashing while riding an ebike at 40kmph. Even at 20kmph, you might get seriously hurt if landing badly w/o helmet while on a bicycle, and since most people don't wear body protection while riding bike, this kinda make it worse.

Thirdly, most people don't drive super car because of the price, yet a class 3 ebike is quite accessible for a lot of people.

As someone that always favor bicycle and is riding a class 2 that's almost a class 3, I honestly don't think both case is comparable. All or nothing is a terrible argument anyway.