OK, heads up everybody who rides in Tucson! Over the holiday my wife and I were out of town. It turns out that one of the other guests where we were staying works with the Bicycle Advisory Committee that helps guide the regional jurisdictions on bike matters. One of the bits of information that came up is that soon, an item on their agenda will be motorized bicycles. The feeling I got was that they probably wouldn't try to ban them but some form of regulation was not out of the question.
Why are they doing this? Well, they have a metric they call "crashes" which seems to be any bicycle incident serious enough to get reported. Their guesstimate as to the percentage of motorized bikes in town is between 1 and 3% of the total bike population yet motorized bike crashes are accounting for about 25% of the fatal crashes. Add in to this that there's been about a fatality a year involving a motorized bike and the authorities are taking notice.
So there it is guys! You can slow down and try to follow the rules or you can be regulated out of existence. Your call!
Why are they doing this? Well, they have a metric they call "crashes" which seems to be any bicycle incident serious enough to get reported. Their guesstimate as to the percentage of motorized bikes in town is between 1 and 3% of the total bike population yet motorized bike crashes are accounting for about 25% of the fatal crashes. Add in to this that there's been about a fatality a year involving a motorized bike and the authorities are taking notice.
So there it is guys! You can slow down and try to follow the rules or you can be regulated out of existence. Your call!