Dear Editor,
Having read a recent article in VTDigger about electric motorcycles — or e-motos — and as the owner of a registered, licensed, street-legal electric motorcycle, I’m perplexed why Vermont police are not enforcing current statutes on unregistered, unlicensed, unhelmeted e-moto riders on public streets and bike paths.
Electric motorcycles capable of traveling at speeds greater than 30 mph or having a motor output above 750 watts — such as the Sondors Metacycle pictured in the article — are classified as motorcycles in Vermont.
Under 23 V.S.A. § 4(18)(A), a motorcycle is defined generally as any motor vehicle with a seat or saddle for the use of the rider and designed to travel on not more than three wheels in contact with the ground. Electric bicycles and motor-driven cycles are explicitly excluded from this definition; e-motos that exceed the thresholds for those categories fall within it.
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Unless registered, licensed and operated by a rider with a motorcycle endorsement, e-motos are not legal on public streets or bike paths.
Strict enforcement of existing statutes will help eliminate the danger posed by these vehicles interacting with bicycles and pedestrians.
Steve Levy
Burlington, Vt.
