Voltz
Senior Member
A battery fire in the cabin would be noticed quickly, but not one in the luggage hold.
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TTC: Other Items (catch all)
- Thread starter drum118
- Start date
allengeorge
Senior Member
I'm pretty hard-nosed on this. E-Bike Batteries sold in US/Canada should be UL-certified, period. Any seller or lessor who trades in non-UL batteries should be punitively penalized per-sale. Otherwise, some day, some cheaply-made battery is going to burn in someone's house and given the speed at which these things combust there will be casualties.
APTA-2048
Senior Member
This is already happening with increased frequency in New York.
gabe
Senior Member
Yes e-bikes should be banned on all public transit. If this was rush hour on a work day, people could have been killed.
abc7ny.com
The city of New York has seen an explosion in battery fires sparked by e-bikes and e-scooters. There have been 80 e-battery fires so far this year, including 60 injuries and nine deaths.
Concern grows over e-battery fires on trains and subways
The city of New York has seen an explosion in battery fires sparked by e-bikes and e-scooters. There have been 80 e-battery fires so far this year, including 60 injuries and nine deaths.
abc7ny.com
The city of New York has seen an explosion in battery fires sparked by e-bikes and e-scooters. There have been 80 e-battery fires so far this year, including 60 injuries and nine deaths.
Richard White
Senior Member
Yes e-bikes should be banned on all public transit. If this was rush hour on a work day, people could have been killed.
Concern grows over e-battery fires on trains and subways
The city of New York has seen an explosion in battery fires sparked by e-bikes and e-scooters. There have been 80 e-battery fires so far this year, including 60 injuries and nine deaths.
The city of New York has seen an explosion in battery fires sparked by e-bikes and e-scooters. There have been 80 e-battery fires so far this year, including 60 injuries and nine deaths.
The TTC will of course announce enforcement action against e-bikes and e-scooters.
After announcing this, they will do absolutely nothing.
Unless someone actually dies and a coroners inquest is held, don't expect anything to change.
81-717
Active Member
Surprised it's becoming more of an issue now. If I'm not mistaken, the era of exploding cellphone batteries was primarily in the early days of cellphones (1980s/1990s or so), and more recently with the Note 7 which has since been resolved.
Hopefully eBus batteries wouldn't go off like those eBike batteries.
Hopefully eBus batteries wouldn't go off like those eBike batteries.
allengeorge
Senior Member
The explosive (hah!) success of e-bikes has led to a vast industry of fly-by-night operators all trying to deliver the cheapest batteries possible. The market hasn’t coalesced yet, and regulation hasn’t caught up.
If a building burns down somewhere and scores of people die at the same time (even the fires in NYC haven’t been at that scale) there will be pressure to act. Moreso if it happens in multiple cities.
81-717
Active Member
Indeed, another example of "you get what you pay for"
nfitz
Superstar
Sounds more like I get what someone else paid for.Indeed, another example of "you get what you pay for"
I'm not sure she the comparison to wheelchairs. It's not like they are bursting into flame; probably less km a day, and better serviced with proper parts.
smallspy
Senior Member
Wheelchairs and mobility scooters require UL or CSA certification.
These e-bikes don't.
That's the difference.
Dan
evandyk
Senior Member
I'm involved in a housing organization that has seen a small handful of e-bike fires in the last few years. They mostly seem to be caused by using mismatched charging equipment. I know there are documented examples of spontaneous fires occurring, but the real risk is in improper charging, which generally people won't be doing in the subway.
dowlingm
Senior Member
that (requiring certification for import or sale of e-bike batteries) might slow the issue down but even certified batteries can have problems. Setting that aside, the TTC or GO won't have the resources to inspect the certifications of ebikes, so those already in country will continue to be a problem. Given that there seem to be practices of using non standard chargers or doubling up batteries out there, we can't solely rely on "they were fine when they left the factory"
I do note that it was only recently that people were yelling at GO for not being quick enough to rip out seats to make provision for these bikes to be co-located with passengers. Now one has caught fire, caused significant and possibly irreparable damage to a subway car or cars, and if it turns out the rider was a delivery courier, the companies involved will be quick to answer "contractor" to any requests that they contribute to the TTC's costs.
T3G
Senior Member
So what do you say to someone, then, who's stranded, and needs to bring an e-bike on public transit out of necessity? Tough luck? Should they have foreseen the breakdown or injury or freak spell of bad weather that put them in this position?
Are there e-bike towing services?
Are there e-bike towing services?
smallspy
Senior Member
PL1
Senior Member
The e bikes that don't work this way should be treated as motorbikes and not be allowed in bike lanes, and also not on transit (IMHO).
Anyway, these are relatively early days for e-bikes. Blanket bans will likely not work or be helpful