Star Simpson

Anecdotally, these new obscenely-heavy e-bikes in SF seem considerably safer than other bicycles. Sure, the brakes are more likely in good repair, but I think the weight is actually helpful in a subtle way..

I used to have a featherlight carbon fiber road bicycle (bought it in college for cheap off of someone on the racing team — "feh, this is now last year's model!",) could routinely get up to 20-25mph. Cars never saw me coming and I would get cut off all the time. (caveat Boston)

When I am riding a bicycle that is speed-limited to provide only a certain amount of extra power, which I cannot merely quadricep into exceeding that speed — I think I'm actually less likely to end up running up to cars that aren't already aware that I am there; and am so, safer.

I find this interesting because I am not sure that I would have reasoned my way to this belief or necessarily immediately bought "heavier bikes with electronic rate controls are safer bikes to ride" if it had been posited.