I’d bet that these damn lifted F150/Ram coal roller assholes kill and injure way more innocent bystanders than ebikes and electric motorcycles combined. Obviously there has to be a cutoff when you can’t use multipurpose paths and a cutoff for when you need a license, but focusing on this seems like such a misalignment of priorities.

This is not a crackdown on ebikes, this is a crackdown on dangerous use of what are essentially electric motorcycles.

Bill Sellin, one of the directors with the OC Bicycle Coalition, said many of the bikes causing problems in south Orange County aren’t technically e-bikes, but motorized bicycles, adding that sheriff deputies need to know the difference to enforce the law properly.

I’ll rewrite the headline to be more truthful:

“Politicians in Orange County facing pressure as car manufacturers increasingly worried that urban dwellers are buying fewer cars.”

Key hints in the article:

• “Increasing complaints from the community” - nicely vague, and redirects focus that the pressure is coming from the community and not car dealers.
• “Accidents up 500℅” - nicely vague, and could equally mean “we had 5 accidents this year instead of 1.” Also cleverly shifts blame to the victims; equivalent to saying “rapes are up 500%, the problem is women wearing bikinis!”

Orange County is a bastion of Conservativism in California. An article with this bent is not surprising to me.

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