TFL e-bike ban

[Pat "5mph"]

A hospital in Edinburgh recently put one a message to all staff banning e-bikes being taken into the building or parked up anywhere near it. It’s not just dodgy e-bikes, it’s people sourcing iffy battery packs to replace OEM ones that no longer hold a good charge.

That is a bit of a useless health and safety precaution: any visitor/patient could arrive on an Ebike, park it up at the hospital.

 

[Regular.Cyclist]

That is a bit of a useless health and safety precaution: any visitor/patient could arrive on an Ebike, park it up at the hospital.

I guess they think it is reducing the overall risk and that a lot of patients will turn up by other means.

 

[Gwylan]

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...-bikes-after-concerns-over-igniting-batteries

still Ok with a folding ebike....

Well, tough *****ies or whatever. I'll live somewhere else and they can suck it up

 

[Gwylan]

That is a bit of a useless health and safety precaution: any visitor/patient could arrive on an Ebike, park it up at the hospital.

Refuse to come and get a good lawyer to sue their significant parts .

 

[Regular.Cyclist]

Refuse to come and get a good lawyer to sue their significant parts .

They still provide e-bike parking but a safe distance from the building so it may make it more difficult to sue.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

I guess they think it is reducing the overall risk and that a lot of patients will turn up by other means.

In the hospital where I work, we had a Dad parking up his Ecargo bike, at drop off and pick up his wee daughter at the nursery across the road
The result of this rule is of course aggravating only to staff, because who would want park up their bike far away from work, where they can't even keep an eye on it?
The visitors/patients will still park on site, who is going to stop them?
The car park attendant?
Anywhere I have worked there are always aggravations for staff that want to commute by bike.

 

[Gwylan]

They still provide e-bike parking but a safe distance from the building so it may make it more difficult to sue.

That's a special racism sponsored by that goodly bunch. Sponsored by the BBC, if you watch some thick programmes

 

[Regular.Cyclist]

In the hospital where I work, we had a Dad parking up his Ecargo bike, at drop off and pick up his wee daughter at the nursery across the road
The result of this rule is of course aggravating only to staff, because who would want park up their bike far away from work, where they can't even keep an eye on it?
The visitors/patients will still park on site, who is going to stop them?
The car park attendant?
Anywhere I have worked there are always aggravations for staff that want to commute by bike.

In this case yes as parking is controlled by a security firm…. at least for the next few years while it’s still a PFI.

 

[classic33]

And, to be clear, were you sure the signs were banning them from that bike store, the whole station, or all Network Rail property?

I think I've seen e-bikes with downtube batteries be banned from some bike storage abroad because the rack design didn't allow enough space for the supersized downtube, but I don't remember if it was actually signed as an e-bike ban or a downtube size limit.

Take a trip up and check for yourself.
Your advice to me before.

 

[classic33]

How do they know what is, let alone test for being an e-bike? This is almost certainly going to be tested, similar to how the notorious southeastern bike ban decades ago was tested to destruction by people wrapping their bikes in brown paper or bin bags and calling them parcels.

With batteries, train companies could set some reasonable parameters to minimise risk: for example, say it needs a label with some of the usual safety markings, and an intact closed case.

Much easier for staff to see if a battery is fitted it's against the rules.

And it's not uncommon to be turned off/not allowed on a train because you're carrying something oversize.

Your just trying to find a way round it.

As for folders, maybe their relying on the bike manufacturers name as a sign that they can be trusted not to be knock-off batteries fitted.
Why not ask the people putting the ban in place. We can only speculate as to why folding bikes are excluded from the ban.

 

[Pat "5mph"]

In this case yes as parking is controlled by a security firm….

Yes, same here.
However, the "firm" in our hospital consists solely of wee Stevie, who gets abused by (ancient) car drivers all day long.
What is wee Stevie going to do about a visitor's/patient Ebike, if he even knows what an Ebike is?
Are they going to put a sign up in the bike park for patients/visitors/haven't read the core brief?
The only folks that can be pulled up by management are staff, easy to spot who they are.
As I said, extra harassment for cycle commuters, as often happens.
Btw, I'm not an Ebike rider, I'm just sympathizing with colleagues who do ride an Ebike.

 

[Regular.Cyclist]

Yes, same here.
However, the "firm" in our hospital consists solely of wee Stevie, who gets abused by (ancient) car drivers all day long.
What is wee Stevie going to do about a visitor's/patient Ebike, if he even knows what an Ebike is?
Are they going to put a sign up in the bike park for patients/visitors/haven't read the core brief?
The only folks that can be pulled up by management are staff, easy to spot who they are.
As I said, extra harassment for cycle commuters, as often happens.
Btw, I'm not an Ebike rider, I'm just sympathizing with colleagues who do ride an Ebike.

They are proper jobworths in Edinburgh. They pull anybody up for anything that they shouldn’t be going, aside from smoking in hospital grounds of course as they fall foul of that too.

 

[vickster]

Much easier for staff to see if a battery is fitted it's against the rules.

And it's not uncommon to be turned off/not allowed on a train because you're carrying something oversize.

Your just trying to find a way round it.

As for folders, maybe their relying on the bike manufacturers name as a sign that they can be trusted not to be knock-off batteries fitted.
Why not ask the people putting the ban in place. We can only speculate as to why folding bikes are excluded from the ban.

See the email from TfL. Fires have only occurred with non folding thus far. Maybe they'll ban e folders if one goes up in smoke

 

[wiggydiggy]

Well the sticker comes from the EAPC law, its on here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publi...cles-eapcs-in-great-britain-information-sheet So I'd expect if someone was stopped, and asked to show that sticker if they didn't have it then the bike can be seized.



I've seen those stickers, you can buy them on sites next to the 'Vaccine Exempt' cards and 'I am Service Lion' collars

But in all seriousness there is a way to establish. I had a diagnostic done on my bike recently, its something most IT Techs should be able to do as its plugging a USB lead between my bike and a laptop then running some software. I'm looking at the report now and it lists some important points like Type = Pedelec and Max Speed For Support = 25km/h.

If bikes were seized, and examined, its incovenient for the owner but they'd get the bike back. BTP and TFL probably (I have no proof of this) just decided that they don't have the resources to do that so a blanket ban just seems like grabbing the lowest hanging fruit and calling it a win.

If you stick the phrase "e bike 250w sticker" into Ebay, you get 365 results from around £3 upwards. Having a sticker is no guarantee of legality these days.

That did get asked earlier, just pasted my reply for how this should be being addressed.

 

[mjr]

See the email from TfL. Fires have only occurred with non folding thus far. Maybe they'll ban e folders if one goes up in smoke

They've not banned non folding cars from TfL roads yet and there have been far more fires of those.