They have true dedicated bike lanes in Paris. Taken from the car lanes to reduce most streets to 2 lanes. The only things allowed on the sidewalks are people, pets, prams, and cafe tables and chairs.
> They have true dedicated bike lanes in Paris. Taken from the car lanes to reduce most streets to 2 lanes. The only things allowed on the sidewalks are people, pets, prams, and cafe tables and chairs.
FWIW the only things allowed on bike lanes are bicycles[0] and tricycles. Motorised cycles (including e-scooters or ebikes) are not allowed and should be on the road (if they're legal at all, which e-scooters often are not as they don't fit the motorbike standards e.g. no license plates, etc…).
[0] this includes EN15194 LEV: pedal-assistance only, under 250W continuous rated power, 25km/h assistance cutoff
Is that only true in France? Bird and Lime capped their scooters to 15mph in my city so they can be considered bicycle-type vehicles by traffic law (and not a moped that you need to register and get a license plate and insurance for). The apps even recommend you stay in bike lanes wherever possible. When they first appeared out of thin air in my city, limes had the muscle to go 20mph (birds didn't have the oomph to break 15 unless going downhill).
To the extent that anything not obviously / actually a bicycle and not covered by EN15194 (mandating that pedelecs be legally considered bicycles) is left entirely to each country's devices, yes: the stuff above is french law (current as of now, a law passed early this year to make e-scooters legal under various constraints from September).
Other jurisdiction could have other laws / criteria yielding different results e.g. I think in Switzerland s-pedelec (faster and throttle-activated) can and must use bike lanes, but are limited to pure pedalling in pedestrian zone. Apparently your jurisdiction is based around speed capabilities, IIRC Belgium is similar, if devices can't go above a certain speed they're treated the same as bicycles.
How about those moped-shaped electric wheelchair buggies? (I’ve always wondered what the proper “lane” for those is; they go fast enough and have enough momentum that they’re dangerous on the sidewalk, but they’re unprotected enough that it’s dangerous for them to be in the bike lane, let alone a car lane.)
...or do those even exist outside of America (and maybe the ex-Commonwealth)?
Here in the UK, we have two categories of mobility scooters and electric wheelchairs. If they're capable of no more than 4mph, they can be used on the pavement; if they're capable of more than 4mph but less than 8mph, they can be used on the road without a license but they do need to be registered.
Funny that you talk about bike lanes: on my way to work I cross a bridge, with the sidewalk on one side being a bike lane, I usually walk on the other side, since it's closer to the tram station I'm going to; each time I'll have to avoid bikes and e-scooters that don't want to go to the other side and instead choose to swerve among the many pedestrians that cross that bridge
