Standards vary in many cities but, generally speaking to be allowed in multi-use trails, or bicycle-allowed wide sidewalks, off-street bike paths, protected cycle tracks:
- Bicycle-looking pedelecs that only boost when you pedal
- Electric kick scooters that weigh less than a heavy school backpack (lift a Bird scooter in Louisville or San Jose -- both where I visited -- you'll see what I mean)
Should be classed in the same "motorization allowance" category as motorized wheelchairs (and assistive electric scooters, most commonly used by the elderly) with speed restrictions preventing them from becoming faster than a regular bicycle at moderate speed, and no faster than a fast running sprint, typically about 15 or 17 kilometers per hour speed limiter, although many scooters have been programmed with various limits like 20kph or 25kph in a geofenced way.
Kitchener-Waterloo standardized on 20kph for their Lime electric kick-scooter trial, and permitted them on-campus (university) and a specific multiuse trail as a trial since .... somehow, crazily -- Ontario doesn't allow these on roads (yet). That should be fixed, stat.
Many cities I have visited has started to categories the new mobility options. Legislation can force providers (e.g. bikeshare, scootershare) to build in the electronic speed limiter or even geofenced speed limiters (faster speeds on road networks, slower speeds on offroad multiuse/cycle trails) which Lime/Bird already supports geofenced speed limit rules enforced on them by municipalities. That reduces danger to pedestrians who will be more injured by being hit by a bicycle, than being hit by a speed-limited electric kick scooter.
I've seen my electric kickscooter rentals in other cities (Bird, Lime) successfully speed-limit themselves to 17kph in pedestrian-heavy areas, and I'm able to leap off them to a running stop safely too. Renting is just a 3-second scan from my smartphone on any random scooter lying around, and I can park them pretty much anywhere near a bike rack or spaces between parking meters (if allowed) -- rental responsibility instantly ends when I park the electric kick scooter. All the scooters are GPS trackered so the app tells me nearest unused scooters.
Picture of me using these electric kickscooters. In this specific city, they were preprogrammed to a ~23kph speed limit; some other cities limited to ~17kph.
It is simply because we managed to squeeze Tesla Gigafactory batteries (common now-cheap 18650-format cylindrical lithium -- 65mm x 18mm) inside bike frame tubes & inside a scooter-bottoms -- that we have
ultralightweight electric vehicles, some of which weigh less than a full school backpack!
There are now already precedents of new municipal rules that accomodate these new mobility categories, to properly define "pedelecs" as
bicycle-looking ebikes that only boost only when pedalled -- and
electric kick scooters that have weight and speed restrictions (e.g. lighter than a university backpack). I think this is
reasonable to permit those anywhere regular bikes can go, though some cities permit them too high a speed limit (e.g. 25kph in pedestrian-heavy areas is not a good idea). Properly speed-limited, those new electric kickscooters are less threatening to pedestrians than a regular bicycles on multiuse trails.
Never in humankind we had tiny electric vehicles lighter than a bicycle -- that has enough battery range to propel a human all the way from Toronto downtown almost all the way Oakville on the same battery charge -- and capable of speeds similar to a fast pedal. If you so desired.
Such impressive new mobility categories, made possible by the commoditization of new battery technologies, had never needed to be factored into city planning -- and now needs to be, stat.
That said,
fast, heavy, moped-looking e-bikes definitely should NOT be allowed on offstreet/multiuse trails used by pedestrians. I currently grudgingly tolerate them in relatively-lightly-used bike lanes in Hamilton though would be questionable if we reached copenhagen-style bike traffic (even simply University College St summer bike traffic).
About licensing -- some cities require a driver license and age minimum (18), while others don't require a driver's license. Basic scooter training (15 minutes) is however recommended to allow scooter users much of the basic etiquette. It's a question that blurs the boundary between licensed and non-licensed motorized vehicles.... No license is needed to ride these electric kickscooters in many other cities.