text: Power assisted bikes are legal in bike lanes.  These machines which can travel up to 50 kph are dangerous to pedal bikes, pedestrians and  cars turning legally across the bike lanes which presume the approaching bike is travelling at a normal pace and they have enough time to make the legal right turn.  The council amended the bylaw to allow them in the lanes and as the prices drop they will become more and more popular.
  They are not licenced  or even insured vehicles there is no regulating competence to drive them and if they hit and run little or no way of tracking them.  It has been suggested to  local councillors in downtown wards that this use of the bike lanes be reviewed before there is a serious accident. A 40 kilogram machine (maximum allowable size) travelling at 50kph can kill an unwary pedestrian or pedal bikers and in contact with a car turning legally across the bike lane can kills the rider. It is only a matter of time before the first fatal accident.