Canadians may be interested

http://www.vancouversun.com/Vancouv...+motorized+bicycle+tickets/6296114/story.html

a judge in BC recently threw a case out of court essentially because the laws in Canada regarding motor assisted bicycles are arcane and confusing.

there's a link to the court document at the bottom of the article, but it seems to be dead.
would love to read that.



for those not aware / who want to hear my two cents about it:
Canadian federal law describes motor assisted bicycles more than once. one of those times they are lumped in with motorcycles and require insurance and plates. the other time they are described they are lumped in with E-bikes and are unregulated.

in the description that collects them with motorcycles it describes "having gears" or "having a clutch" as part of the definition, it also mentions a maximum acceleration, maximum horsepower, maximum displacement.

the law where they are lumped in with E-bikes has nothing regulating that stuff at all.

so in theory a 99MPH electric bike is totally okay, but a two stroke that can barely to ten is a no-go.


this gets even more complicated if you try to register a motorized bike as a motorcycle because there is no legal framework to do so.

combine with all these factors the fact that there are no programs within the police to ensure individual officers are aware of the state of this law and you have a recipe for nonsense.

combine all of that with the near criminal car-insurance rates in Canada (mostly Ontario) and you have a system that basically punishes the poor with lack of mobility.
/rant


I mostly wanted to share the link because this is ultimately progress in this matter and anyone who may care should be able to read it.
(also anyone know another source for the ruling itself?)

Thanks for the help! There's this link at the bottom of that article.
http://www.provincialcourt.bc.ca/judgments/pc/2012/00/p12_0067.htm
Not sure why I didn't post that before.

That's the public record of the ruling, but from what I can tell the .bc.ca site is broken (or at least the search function is)


Even without access to the ruling, any time a judge in Canada does anything about the quagmire of legislation that is Canadian law, no matter how small, I try to enjoy it.

I find it rather fascinating how I hear all the time about "going green" by developing new technologies and reinventing various wheels within the machine of society to be more efficient, but something that can actually help in a direct way based on decades old technology that is available already?
I will be lucky if it doesn't get impounded.

I am currently looking into solutions to quieten my bike before I start using it on the regular. loud may be safe, but quiet is respectable. unfortunately for canada there seems to be a general prejudice against new things.
that said, as oddly draconian as the new ruling seems to me, I am very happy that electric bikes are fully legitimate now.
ontarios rules regarding this subject are much more confusing, and open to interpretation.
The trick to a successful tilt (against any foe, imagined, masonry or otherwise) is to keep your head down, and your shield up. I would prefer armour over a lance.
Most commercially available mopeds you see are also within the legal grey area, as very few of the ones I see around have plates on them. the police have no reason to dive into the paperwork swamp of enforcing a confusing law on someone who is causing no trouble.
It's much easier to ride a two wheeled vehicle on a quiet road anyway.