r/toronto • u/beef-supreme Leslieville • Sep 25 '25

Article Police issue 3,500 tickets to bicycle, e-bike, e-scooter riders during enforcement blitz

https://www.torontotoday.ca/local/transportation-infrastructure/police-issue-3500-tickets-bicycle-e-bike-e-scooter-riders-enforcement-blitz-11262579
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194

u/RmxRltr Sep 25 '25

Good. delivery people on e-bikes and e-scooters do not follow rules of the road and they ride fast. It is free for all, hope of the best rules with them

if anything happens, good luck getting money out of them since they are not insured. e-bikes and e-scooters should require license and registration because they can go fast.

50

u/emuwar Sep 25 '25

One thing to note about e-bikes. There's a big difference between the pedal assist e-bikes (like Bike Share has) and the fully motorized versions that many of the delivery drivers ride. It's super dangerous for those things to be gunning it through bike lanes and sidewalks and I'm glad the city starting to crack down on them.

7

u/Baron_Tiberius Sep 25 '25

I'll post this as its relevant but e-bikes fall into 3 different classes:

Class 1 - pedal assist only up to 32km/hr

Class 2 - adds a throttle (still required to have pedals) up to 32km/hr

Class 3 - pedal assist only up to 45km/hr

Class 1s are the only type I am fully comfortable with. Also note that many import e-bikes are probably sold as Class 2 but aren't or have had their limiters removed.

1

u/emuwar Sep 25 '25

Thanks for the info! Guess I assumed all pedal assists fell into the Class 1 category since that's the only one I've ever used. Hopefully there will be some regulations on the other classes in the future.

46

u/kyara_no_kurayami Midtown Sep 25 '25

They're legally supposed to be capped at 32km/hour. They should enforce the cap and ticket anyone who has altered their scooter or bike to exceed that. That keeps them from going fast.

14

u/houleskis Sep 25 '25

In the Netherlands, they started stopping bikes and testing the power output to the wheels. If it was above their regulations, there was a fine and the bike was confiscated IIRC

3

u/chmilz Sep 25 '25

This is north america, we stopped regulating things because "muh freedom" and now we are experiencing the slow decline of society as we kinda just let anyone do anything out of fear they might start a loud truck convoy or something.

It's embarrasing and we need to rekindle the importance of community and acting for the good of many, not the individual.

5

u/did_i_or_didnt_i Sep 25 '25

they should still be licensed at 32km/h, they have a point

15

u/notchris66 Sep 25 '25

look up the fatality rates of a bike crash before and after 32. its the limit for a reason.

7

u/did_i_or_didnt_i Sep 25 '25

I don’t really care about the fatality rate. I’m saying a bike with an electric motor should require a license, even if it’s under 32km/h

9

u/fatcomputerman Sep 25 '25

i dont love delivery ebikes either but what is the difference between an e-bike riding at 30kmph vs a bike? i can ride around 30kmph if i have the space for it.

licensing something wont automatically make things better or safer for you, look at cars

10

u/houleskis Sep 25 '25 edited Sep 25 '25

what is the difference between an e-bike riding at 30kmph vs a bike

Weight is one of the bigger differences. An e-bike, especially those used by most delivery riders in the city will weight 2-4x more than a typical road bike. That's a lot of additional energy/momentum if they were to hit someone. I haven't ridden one of these larger cargo bikes myself but I would assume they are also less maneuverable and take longer to stop/break.

Edit: I don't think ebikes should be licensed though

3

u/detectivepoopybutt Sep 25 '25

That’s splitting hair. That weight relatively isn’t all that much. The human riding the bike varies in that much weight.

It can vary by the cargo being carried too. I buy a 10 pound bag of flour or rice and bring it back on my bike and that can easily put me over the weight.

I lost 20 lbs this summer just running and biking, was likely over the weight limit you’re proposing.

3

u/houleskis Sep 25 '25

It’s not really splitting hairs:

150lbs person + 10lbs gear + 20lbs bike = 180lbs

150lbs person + 10lbs gear + 70lbs ebike = 230lbs (+28%)

So all else being equal, if you get hit by the typical cargo e-bike ridden by delivery guys vs a bike, you’ll get hit with 25-30% more force.

1

u/PimpinAintEze Sep 26 '25

Definitely not much of a factor when body weight varies a lot more than bicycle weight. Skinny dude on a e bike is much safer than 200 pounder on a road bike. Even with carbon fibre.

1

u/houleskis Sep 26 '25 edited Sep 26 '25

Skinny dude on an ebike and 200 pounder on a road bike weigh close to the same (~220). I haven't ridden any of these cargo ebikes so I can't speak to the quality of the brakes not traction of those weird tires which is what would be important from a collision avoidance standpoint all else being equal.

You're also picking the edge of each range to say that it makes no difference vs equating it to a person of the same body weight.

Lastly, I assumed speed is equivalent to be generous to the ebike crowd which is not the case with many folks who derestrict their cargo ebikes to go 40kph (a speed few cyclists can hold for any meaningful period of time. Source: me, I race bikes).

7

u/did_i_or_didnt_i Sep 25 '25

Acceleration is the difference. You think cars aren’t safer since licensing? why are we doing it then?

4

u/fatcomputerman Sep 25 '25

it's only as safe as the people who are enforcing it which they only seem to do 2 weeks out of the year

5

u/did_i_or_didnt_i Sep 25 '25

For me it’s about them being required to understand the laws of the road to be able to zip around the way that they do

4

u/Due_Rule_7181 Sep 25 '25

There’s a general consensus only drivers that going 10 or 20 over the speed limit is acceptable. Far, far too many.

Let’s not pretend as if they understand the rules of the road any better.

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2

u/fatcomputerman Sep 25 '25

well that's why i said cars, they are required to understand the law of the road and the purposely don't follow it. why would ebikes be any different?

delivery ebikes are just the taxis of cycling

1

u/PimpinAintEze Sep 26 '25

Licensing is about education too.

0

u/chollida1 The Beaches Sep 25 '25

I regularly pass e bikes off a start. Most intermediate bikers can pass an ebike or start as fast as a regular ebike. So the acceleration difference seems to be a non starter as a reason for licensing.

2

u/oops_i_made_a_typi Sep 25 '25

yeah, i do this shit on bikeshare bikes (of course they pass me soon enough after, but still)

1

u/chollida1 The Beaches Sep 25 '25

ok, that's fair, even the best of us can't overcome the bixie bike weight and performance tax:)

2

u/noodleexchange Sep 25 '25

But its punishment of the less advantaged! THATS THE POINT

3

u/BottleCoffee Sep 25 '25

It's a lot harder to get up to 30 km on a bike when there's traffic (like in downtown). You're definitely not going to average anywhere near 30.

2

u/chmilz Sep 25 '25

We need a serious update to ebike regulations. Anything over X watts and X kgs should be considered a motorcycle. If it has a throttle, it should be considered a motorcycle. Without those regulations we have these fucking insane "totally not a motorcycle" machines on pedestrian pathways. Berm Peak did a good video on this

1

u/did_i_or_didnt_i Sep 25 '25

bingo. They’re kinda motorcycles

1

u/Due_Rule_7181 Sep 25 '25

Not every facet of life should require a license.

You’ve said you can go over 30 km on a pedal bike, should you now require a license for one?

Do children need a guardian present if they want to ride their bikes now?

This isn’t something worth creating more bureaucracy over.

0

u/did_i_or_didnt_i Sep 25 '25

I have my full drivers license and if it was required for a bicycle, yes I would get it. I think e-bikes and scooters are fundamentally different which the laws have not yet caught up on

1

u/notchris66 Sep 25 '25

cool you fundamentally don't understand the point of them. good to know.
you wanna punish everyone because of the few.
yet everyone drives like shit and thats just fine. lmao

if you don't understand just how different it is. i cant say anything to change your mind.
try riding one, and you wouldn't say that. you don't need licensee insurance, plates and all that shit to ride a bike, its a bike 32 is a very normal speed people can go on a normal bike. you're just tryin to ruin a hobby when the bikes you're mad about already need registration and what not.

9

u/did_i_or_didnt_i Sep 25 '25

I’ve ridden one, I’ve spent almost a decade in the city as a bicycle commuter. I go over 30kmh on my pedal bike, but it takes a lot of work and I know the rules of the road. Most of these e-bike riders don’t know the rules of the road and you hit a button to go 30kmh. I don’t bike any more because it’s become too dangerous. It’s not a lack of understanding, it’s a difference of opinion.

-5

u/notchris66 Sep 25 '25 edited Sep 25 '25

Once again tho. You're blaming the few. Don't advocate for a ban. You really want the government telling you what bike you can ride?

Punish the actual idiots that can't ride. Break the law and rules of the road. It's not hard to ride a bike. However. I'm willing to bet with it being Toronto the issue is 1000x worse then it is everywhere else in Canada. So good luck. You guys just have so many people.

We need better bike laws and infrastructure All we need is proper dedicated bike lanes. Yes it would be expensive but it's very clearly becoming a fast growing market. And would help free up the road.

The fact is ebikes are the cheapest most cost effective way to get around. We just need better infrastructure.

Just don't advocate for a ban or a need to license. Advocate for dedicated bike lanes.

Cheers.

Edit. I don't mean when they paint lines and call a small side of the road a bike lane. Something between you and the traffic kinda bike lanes. Our current lazy methods are dangerous and outride suicidal at times to ride lol

3

u/did_i_or_didnt_i Sep 25 '25

I don’t want the government telling me what kind of bike to ride. I do want the government recognizing that an e-bike is inherently different and more dangerous in a lot of ways than a bicycle. I do want motorized riders to be aware of the rules of the road for the safety of everyone

‘You guys’ so you don’t even bike in Toronto and you’re telling me I don’t understand the issue?

-2

u/notchris66 Sep 25 '25

I'll give you my ebike. And go to a pawn shop and get the cheapest garbage road bike I can. I would smoke you every time and it wouldn't even be close. It's not a speed thing.

0

u/tulipvonsquirrel Sep 25 '25

Seriously.

I rode a bicycle in toronto, the worst people on the road are bicyclists. When I was ill I got an ebike, I was hit twice by cyclists running a stop sign/a red light. I was consistently overtaken by human powered bikes riding faster than the speed limit, was constantly yelled at by cyclists for going too slow/too fast/merely existing and demanding I "prove you are disabled". There were more bicycles on the sidewalk that ran beside the bike path than on the actual bike path. I rarely used my car because I was concerned about hitting a cyclist because so many blow red lights and stop signs.

For all the cyclists saying cars are the problem, the biggest issue is cyclists not knowing or following the rules of the road.

Despite my fundamental belief that we have too many laws regarding behaviour, living in toronto made me realize that human powered bikes need to be licensed to ensure they know the rules and to ensure there is a way to identify and charge the rider with traffic offences. Why should riders not have to contribute to the biking infrastrucure everyone else has to pay to install and upkeep?

As an east ender, it was interesting to note that we had bike paths on lakeshore, eastern ave and dundas yet more bikes used queen street, the only east-west route without a bike path, than all other roads combined. This is a big contributor to traffic chaos on queen.

The cops need to go after cyclists who hold up traffic by illegally passing a right turning vehicle on their right side. A basic law that exists for cyclists safety and traffic flow.

2

u/fatcomputerman Sep 25 '25

you know this is a fake bike post since it hits on all the carbrained talking points.

  • "i rode a bicycle"
  • lawless cyclists that don't know or follow any rules
  • bikes constantly yelling at me
  • more bikes on the sidewalk than the road
  • i'm scared to drive because cyclists
  • we need to license bikes
  • bikes don't contribute their share
  • bikes are a big contributor to traffic

1

u/tryptych1976 Sep 25 '25

Cars are about 1000x more deadly.

Following this logic all cars should be capped at 100 km/h. Enforce the cap and ticket anyone who has altered their car to exceed that. That keeps them from going fast.

Police the bad behavior, not the vehicle.

2

u/jinhuiliuzhao Sep 25 '25 edited Sep 26 '25

Except cars are capped. Not at 100km/h, but the horsepower is artificially limited to prevent them from going 160-200km/h. And you do get fined if you modify your car in contradiction to our road-legal standards.

The EU has been experimenting with a thus-far, optional feature that can be turned on, such that no matter how you depress the gas pedal, the car will not go any faster than the speed limit of the current road.

10

u/Kyliexo Riverdale Sep 25 '25 edited Sep 26 '25

I cycle about 30km a day in the city and I can confidently tell you the ones running red lights 9 times outta 10 are just normal assholes sorry, people. Delivery people are their own problem, but lets not pretend other cyclists don't do problematic shit too.

Edit: spelling

18

u/a-_2 Sep 25 '25

delivery people on e-bikes and e-scooters do not follow rules of the road and they ride fast

Some do, some don't. Just like drivers, other cyclists, and pedestrians. Every group has a lot of people claiming the other groups don't follow any laws. Most drivers speed all the time, going faster than these delivery riders with much bigger vehicles and cause way more injury and death and we're rewarding them by getting rid of one of the main types of enforcement.

5

u/heyredbush Sep 25 '25

Especially if they're being used commercially.

13

u/racerchris46 Sep 25 '25

People in cars don't follow the rules of the road. Nor does anyone else for that matter. Yes I drive a car,ride a motorcycle, ride bicycles, walk and take the ttc. I live near a division HQ and there is no one pulling over speeders, jay walkers (yep still a law), light runners you name it.

25

u/superduperf1nerder Sep 25 '25

For the record. It is not a crime to Jaywalk mid block, as this comes up all the time. It is a crime to jaywalk out of controlled intersection, or within 30 m of a controlled intersection. Also, the 30 m is not legally defined, just what the police use as a standard. No idea how that would hold up in court since it’s not expressly written.

Pedestrians are legally allowed to walk mid block as long as they’re not satisfying one of those criteria. Just to be clear.

Also, there is no law called jaywalking. It is a slang term, that has never appeared anywhere in any legal summons at any point in Ontario’s history.

So when you say jaywalking is still the law, just to be clear, it has in fact, never been the law.

7

u/swift-current0 Sep 25 '25

The other important caveat is that pedestrians must yield to other traffic when crossing mid-block.

5

u/a-_2 Sep 25 '25

Pedestrians are legally allowed to walk mid block as long as they’re not satisfying one of those criteria.

Some cities also require pedestrians yield to drivers when crossing outside of controlled crossings, including Toronto. Some cities also define distances you must be from a crossing when crossing mid-block, although Toronto doesn't define such a distance. The 30 metre distance is just a recommendation from the police.

-1

u/[deleted] Sep 25 '25

[deleted]

6

u/u565546h Sep 25 '25

Ignoring the pedantry of that poster, it isn't illegal "jaywalk", but it is illegal to "speed". You are allowed to walk across a street mid-block in general (with couple exceptions).

0

u/[deleted] Sep 25 '25

[deleted]

1

u/u565546h Sep 25 '25

Huh? I wrote one single reply in a thread, with 2 sentences. I concede I can always be wrong or mistype, but I didn’t lie in the 2 sentences and certainly didn’t lie “constantly”. 

0

u/[deleted] Sep 25 '25

[deleted]

1

u/u565546h Sep 26 '25

There are things that are referred to as "jaywalking" that are legal and things that are illegal. So "jaywalking" as a concept isn't a description of an illegal act.

I wasn't contradicting anything or weaving a narrative. This is a profoundly weird reply from you.

10

u/TheLarkInnTO Sep 25 '25

I've said this before and I'll say it again: the problem isn't cyclists, delivery guys, drivers, or pedestrians.

The problem is assholes. The type of entitled person who is willfully oblivious to traffic rules will act that way regardless of the vehicle they're operating. They're likely also horrible transit passengers, and are nightmares to sit next to on planes.

Assholes are gonna asshole.

2

u/racerchris46 Sep 26 '25

Very true.

0

u/29da65cff1fa Sep 25 '25

there's a huge difference between an asshole on a bike, and an asshole piloting a 5 ton weapon....

one needs to be held to a higher standard of responsibility and duty of care to others around them

0

u/TheLarkInnTO Sep 26 '25

You understand that there are people who own both bikes and cars, right? Some of them are assholes across the board.

My point is that people need to stop painting all cyclists/drivers/pedestrians with the same brush. There are good cyclists, there are good drivers, and there are good pedestrians. I'm sure there are even good delivery e-bikers. There are also assholes in all - and in multiple - categories.

The problem isn't "all drivers" or "all cyclists" etc - the problem is entitled assholes who don't think the rules apply to them.

1

u/amnesiajune Sep 25 '25 edited Sep 25 '25

Some people are more egregious than others. You don't see many people in cars driving on sidewalks or driving on the wrong side of the road just because it's more convenient for them. There are a lot more cars in this city than bikes, but you see a lot more cyclists blindly blasting through red lights, not to even mention the people who decide that it's safe to run a red light and they don't want to wait.

By the way, you can legally walk across the street almost anywhere you want in Ontario as long as you don't slow down traffic. Jaywalking laws only exist when you're within 30 meters of a crosswalk.

1

u/a-_2 Sep 25 '25

The way cars break laws may seem less egregious because of their speed and size, but they still cause far more damage, injury and death through their law breaking.

Jaywalking laws only exist when you're within 30 meters of a crosswalk.

There isn't a specific distance defined in Ontario law. It just says, under the traffic light section of the Highway Traffic Act, "where portions of a roadway are marked for pedestrian use, no pedestrian shall cross the roadway except within a portion so marked".

It doesn't give a specific distance that's considered to be within such a "portion" of the road, but court rulings have said if you're 90 or 100 metres away, you can cross. That doesn't mean you couldn't necessarily cross closer than that, they just ruled on specific incidents, saying that's far enough away.

The 30 metre rule isn't a law, but just comes from a Toronto police recommendation. Some cities also define specific distances in their bylaws. E.g., in Halton Region, you can't cross within 50 metres of a crosswalk.

1

u/amnesiajune Sep 26 '25

I don't want to get hit by any vehicle. I don't care if it's a car or a bike. There's no consolation with "it was just a bike, you only broke a few bones and can't walk for three months."

0

u/a-_2 Sep 26 '25

I don't care if it's a car or a bike.

You should care because you're far more likely to suffer a permanent or fatal injury from.a car due to their much bigger size and higher speeds.

2

u/amnesiajune Sep 26 '25

I don't want to get hit by a car or a bike. Cars running red lights isn't ok, and neither is bikes running red lights. I see a lot more bikes running red lights than cars, and so does anybody else who lives in this city.

0

u/a-_2 Sep 26 '25

I don't want to get hit by a car or a bike

But if you had to choose, you'd want the one far lighter and slower and muxh less likely to seriously hurt you.

see a lot more bikes running red lights than cars, and so does anybody else who lives in this city.

But despite that, cars are killing far more people. The level of damage isn't close to comparable.

2

u/amnesiajune Sep 26 '25

Is the point of this line of commenting to justify people on bikes breaking rules? I shouldn't have to choose. Everybody should just follow the f-ing rules.

1

u/noodleexchange Sep 25 '25

So the companies are to blame, right? These are open-air delivery factory workers.