A new bill introduced in the Oregon Legislative Assembly aims to prohibit the operation of Class 3 electric-assisted bicycles on sidewalks, bicycle lanes, and
While velocity is certainly the larger contributor, it’s not like mass is insignificant either. Especially for the cargo bike case where even unloaded the mass difference requires a ~5km/h change in velocity for equal kinetic energy.
When you get to very high absolute velocities, mass becomes less and less significant but we’re very much at the low end here in that regard.
Speed’s contribution to kinetic energy is exponential, whereas mass is just a direct multiplicative component.
So speed is absolutely the largest contributing factor.
Your equation actually highlights a good point where that speed should be kept.
While velocity is certainly the larger contributor, it’s not like mass is insignificant either. Especially for the cargo bike case where even unloaded the mass difference requires a ~5km/h change in velocity for equal kinetic energy.
When you get to very high absolute velocities, mass becomes less and less significant but we’re very much at the low end here in that regard.