Electric motorcycles face… noise bans

[advrider]

The recently announced motorcycle bans on some routes by the Hochtaunus local government traffic authority in Germany are being applied to all motorcycles, even if they are electrically powered.

The route closures were originally justified by complaints over excessive noise, so you might have thought that they would not include electric motorcycles. And the law quoted to define the bans would have said that you were right.

As part of the announcement of the motorcycle driving bans on various routes, the authority specified that they were using the Road Traffic Licensing Regulations (StVZO) to specify the vehicles included in the bans. Category L3e of the regs includes motorcycles whose maximum speed is over 45km/h and whose displacement is over 50cc. This would theoretically allow electric motorcycles, as they technically have no displacement.

When the German Federal Association of Motorcyclists (BVDM) pointed this out, it emerged that as always the devil is in the details, because the StVZO actually specifies speed and/or displacement in this context. The BVDM also received additional justification from the authority. The ban no longer relied on the StVZO alone, but now also on the definition of a traffic sign. Traffic sign number 255 prohibits passage, and it relates purely to the type of vehicle entered in the registration certificate and not to the type of drive.

The bureaucracy to the rescue, whether there is a problem or not. Photo: The Bear

And so the Hochtaunus traffic authority confirmed that for electric motorcycles of category L3e (motorcycle, two-wheeled vehicles over 50cc and/or capable of over 45km/h), the imposed route bans apply to electric as well as to combustion engines.

So if you didn’t think that your electric motorcycle would be affected by route closures because it is produces neither much noise nor obnoxious exhaust fumes, you are wrong. And that is why the BVDM is asking the obvious question, so far without an answer: is this really a noise ban, or is it a motorcycle ban? Is the Hochtaunus traffic authority really responding to resident complaints, or is it simply using them to impose a backdoor ban on motorcycles? From the fact that all of their responses have relied on technicalities rather than common sense noise reduction, it does seem like it is the latter.

Vezi sursa