EVLN(A perfect day for an Electric bike ride in Toronto)

[Bruce EVangel Parmenter <brucedp@yahoo.com>]

EVLN(A perfect day for an Electric bike ride in Toronto)
[The Internet Electric Vehicle List News. For Public EV informational
 purposes. Contact publication for reprint rights.]
 --- {EVangel}
NEWS City hopes bikes pick up steam --- Electric models touted in smog
fight are banned from road Joseph Hall 06/29/2001 The Toronto Star
Ontario B02 Copyright (c) 2001 The Toronto Star

Above the listless leaves in High Park, the sun is simmering a
sulphuric stew of smog and pollution that tints the sky with an
unhealthy yellow hue.

It's a day of hot, agitated motorists, wilting pedestrians and sweat. 
A perfect day for a bike ride.  Of course, it helps if your bike has
"the wow effect," said Li-Lien Gibbons, who heads the city's current
effort to get a new generation of electric bikes on to Toronto's
streets.

"That's what everyone says when they take the first pedal," she says,
before whizzing off along a High Park path.

For anyone who has ever ridden a manually powered bike, the sensation
of pedalling these motorized cycles is pleasantly jarring.

Battery powered, the 400-watt engines do not move the bike. Rather,
they "assist" the rider in pedalling it, making the strain of
starting, hills and head winds a relative breeze.

"They're not like the old mopeds that gave this type of technology
such a bad name years ago," said Gibbons, who manages the city-funded
Moving the Economy electric bike project.

A slew of teenager accidents and insurance headaches two decades ago
caused Queen's Park to impose strict age, safety and licensing
restrictions on the mopeds, whereupon they virtually disappeared.

With zero emissions and low noise and speed capacities, the new bikes
are an ideal fit in a city battling both congestion and smog problems,
Gibbons says.

But Ontario's transport ministry is having a hard time deciding how to
categorize them for licensing and safety purposes.

"In terms of regulations and what licensing requirements would be
necessary for this type of vehicle application, that's something we
are reviewing right now," ministry spokesperson Bob Nichols said.

Until this happens, the electronic bikes cannot be used on the road.

UP, UP AND AWAY: Li-Lien Gibbons, who works for electric bike project,
glides up a hill in High Park on one of the models.
 ...
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Renewable Energy (RE) News Editor

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