Police blotter on a steamy Thursday
A cyclist was badly injured Thursday morning downtown by an SUV. TVA claims the cyclist ran a red.
An STM bus crashed into a bus shelter in NDG on Thursday, dealing minor injuries to a man waiting inside.
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Kate
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mare 00:54 on 2023-09-08 Permalink
YM:
A driver in an SUV hit and badly injured a cyclist Thursday morning downtown. TVA claims the cyclist ran a red.
( https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590198219300727 )
Ian 08:41 on 2023-09-08 Permalink
If we want to get super technical, it’s not a “claim” by TVA, it’s according to an eyewitness interviewed by a TVA reporter at the scene of the accident.
Also, does someone riding an electric bike still count as a cyclist?
Blork 09:21 on 2023-09-08 Permalink
An electric bicycle is still a bicycle. While some have throttles, in most cases you still have to pedal them to get anywhere; the motor just provides “pedal assist,” so it’s still cycling. (Not to be confused with electric mopeds that have vestigal pedals just so they can be classified as bicycles… the picture in the TVA report clearly shows a bicycle.)
Blork 09:47 on 2023-09-08 Permalink
Mare: the cyclist hit the vehicle, not the other way around. The impact was on the side of the SUV (driver’s side. Everyone’s looking at the busted windshield and assuming a front-on collision, but at 0:43 in the video you can see that the bicycle T-boned the SUV, hitting in front of the driver’s door. Regardless of who is at fault, it was the bike slamming into the side of the car, full stop.
If the witness is correct that the cyclist blew the red light, then the fault is clear. Cyclist was heading east on the De Maisonneuve bike path. SUV was heading north on Aylmer. From the cyclist’s perspective, he wouldn’t have seen the SUV coming because the view down Aylmer is blocked by the huge The Bay store.
That bicylce is a Gosen Q3 or Q5. Both have 750 watt motors, which are quite powerful. E-bikes in Canada are restricted to 32kph, and the speed limit on the bike path is 20. I don’t know if the cyclist was speeding, but judging by the impact I would speculate that it’s a good possibility. However, the SUV might have been going fast too (although the speed limit there is probably 50). They might have been gunning it to make the light, which would explain why they would seem to come out of nowhere from the cyclist’s perspective (i.e., coming from behind the blocked view of Aylmer).
But regardless of speed, and regardless of fault, it was the bicycle that hit the SUV. if the cyclist did indeed blow through a red light, then the fault is clearly his.
Andrew 19:30 on 2023-09-08 Permalink
Since we’re being super technical, if it had a 750 watt motor, it legally wasn’t a bicycle in Quebec and he wasn’t a cyclist. That’s a “speed limited vehicle” which has the same requirements as a 50cc gas scooter; licence plate, insurance and a regular drivers licence.
Blork 20:13 on 2023-09-08 Permalink
That’s a good point, Andrew, although not completely correct. Gosen claims their 750 watt bikes are speed limited to 32kph, which keeps them in the e-bike category. However, that category also maxes out at 500 watts, so it’s a mix of yes and no. But given how fuzzy and ambiguous wattage ratings tend to be, that measure is less important than the actual speed limitation. The scooter category you’re talking about is speed-limited to 70kph.
Class 1 and class 2 electric bikes in QC are not supposed to be more than 500 watts, but there is no enforcement or controls on that. Many e-bike retailers state on their web sites that their 750 watt bikes will be equipped with 500 watt motors when sold in Quebec (or maybe that’s for all of Canada; I don’t remember).
But many don’t (including Gosen). Because there’s nothing stopping anyone from going to a different province or the US to get a 750 watt (or higher) bike. And there’s no way to tell the difference visually. A 750 or 1000 watt motor doesn’t look or sound any different from a 500 or 350 watt motor. So it’s essentially an unenforceable ruling. There’s also the above-mentioned un-clarity on how wattage ratings are determined. A lot of 750 watt bikes are really 500 watt bikes that “peak” at 750, which is a marketing way to make the bike you’re selling sound like it’s more powerful than it really is. (My e-bike has a 250 watt motor and that’s just fine by me.)
That said, it’s still a bicycle. Even if it is legally classified into some other category, it’s still a bicycle by any reasonable standards. If someone on a 750 watt Gosen Q3 was riding next to someone on a 500 watt Gosen Q3 there would be no distinguishing difference, so saying one isn’t a bicycle is a purely academic argument.
https://saaq.gouv.qc.ca/en/road-safety/modes-transportation/electric-bike/
Kate 22:08 on 2023-09-08 Permalink
The distinction might matter in court, though.
Andrew 18:32 on 2023-09-09 Permalink
Who doesn’t love a purely academic argument?
You’re correct that the watt rating of a motor is pretty arbitrary, but all ebikes have a controller where maximum power and speed are specific numerical setpoints. Mine displays power, and I’m 100% sure it has the same motor they sell in the US and advertise as 750 watts, but it never outputs more than 500. Likewise going down a hill I can go faster than 32 km/hr, but the motor cuts off completely.
500 watts and 32 km/hr is the limit in all provinces I think, it was the federal standard until they transferred control a few years ago. The class 1/2/3 thing is the American system.
You can’t judge by appearance either, there’s also nothing stopping you from installing a DIY motor kit on an actual bike that is capable of 3000 or 5000 watts with a battery that just looks like a frame bag.
So yeah, it’s not easy to tell, and right now the cops don’t know or don’t care. But if there’s more cases like this, we’ll see if that changes.
Ian 20:37 on 2023-09-09 Permalink
This is Montreal – unless a cop is specifically on ticketing non-street-legal electric bikes duty, they can ride whatever the hell they want. In Mile End the Uber Eats e-bike road warriors ride on the sidewalk all the time right up to the door of wherever they are picking up orders from, with their eyes on their phones. I call them out but they always say “Im working” like it’s a free pass. Clearly the communication around the use of e-bikes is lacking.