Question for Japanese people (who ride esk8 in japan)

One of my biggest points I make with all of this, is it’s just as easy to damage someone or something on a self-powered traditional bicycle. It really sucks to see all these laws coming into play in other countries.

I’m not against regulation and safety. But complete bans are really terrible. I don’t want to move backwards as a species. PEVs are wonderful.

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I’m building ESK8 in Japan (@Goldrabe maybe lives in West Japan, I live in East Japan).

To legally ride an electric kick scooter in Japan, you need to meet safety standards. Physical brakes and turn signals are always required.
If you do not meet the criteria, the police have the right to capture you. People who were actually commuting in the electric monocycle are being caught.

There are a few manufacturers that produce such kick scooters. but I don’t want it. lol
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Yeah, but I was talking about making esk8 compatible with laws and registering it :smiley:

If you design a physical brake we can!
But speed limit is 35Km/h. I somehow hope that the new law won’t rise awareness of e-sk8 amongst the police. Even 50cc gasoline bikes are under really shitty restrictions here, only 35Km/h and you can’t take a second person on your scooter.
Two weeks ago I had to flee from a officer on a bycicle, he didn’t called any help but that’s because of my location, police is quite easy going here. Would I had the same encounter in Germany minutes after that several police cars would have tried to track me down.

Well 35km/h is not bad you can enable limits and etc plus once speed a bit and coast at 35km/h is pretty the same at what I am riding right now in UK :slight_smile:

Regarding physical brakes for trampa is pretty easy:

Design physical brakes for your gear drives and I am all over it!
Yes you are correct, all the 50cc scooters go faster than 35Km/h and the police tries to catch you when speeding, so you even don’t need to limit the speed in the first place.

we BOTH know there is nothing that could catch YOU if you wanted to flee , make it worth loosing your board, confiscated temporarily until court case in the UK could mean you hear nothing for 12months!

There is a report of a Boosted board confiscated in London on the Carve UK group. First ESK8 confiscated in UK so far…

If you need physical brakes, check Brakeboard. I have one of their kits and it works great

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I live in Nagano prefecture and just fell deeply in love with esk8ing around the rice fields.
Unfortunately this board only lasted about 10 days, I have a good one on the way less batteries from the USA and 60x30q on the way from Nkon.
ありがとうございました

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Well, I dont know which country socially accepts esk8 on the roads :smiley: But the thing Japanese wouldn’t act like for e.g. French on roads and try to push you off and etc as even if they don’t approve they would keep distance and safety

This idea is pretty not bad considered how many bicycle trails there in forest and parks

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California, baby. We were the first state to have an official law as far as I know. There are still counties that have different restrictions since in the state law, they allow private properties and municipal districts to instill regulations as well.

Not all the cops know about it apparently but if you have it in hand to reference or know it, from what I heard they are generally cool. I’ve ridden right by multiple cops on motorcycles and I don’t think they even looked twice lol

I generally just try not to be stupid and follow all road signs and it usually works out for me. Can’t imagine having it banned, that would suck.

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Yeah I know, but USA is not open for everyone :smiley: I was riding for 2 years in UK without issues with police near by and etc nobody cared but just one idiot killed himself on escooter that’s all now everyone is bad :smiley:

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Dude don’t even get me started about the scooters. Those idiots are gonna get shit banned left and right. They don’t follow the laws, they mow over pedestrians, don’t wear helmets, ride in the center of roads, speed along sidewalks… I could go on for days. They are disrespectful to the PEV world.

Given that, parents enable their children to be unsafe by allowing them to ride without helmets, etc. You are meant to be at least 16 and have a driver’s license in hand to be able to ride them but obviously you can imagine how many people follow that :roll_eyes:

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Yah lime just came to Chicago a couple months ago so been seeing them all over the place (on the west side, bad neighborhoods mostly). The service is a good alternative to divvy or the train or Uber but I’m sure this is going to lead to more deaths on the road. Luckily it’s restricted to just west side so they aren’t all over the downtown area yet, not sure if plan is to expand that way or legislation is keeping them out.

We have all of them here in SD lmao, Lime, Bird, Spin, Lyft, etc. They limited the number that the companies can release on the street but still. Just the other day I walked past some older guy that had fallen and cracked his head open, ambulance was on the way.

Very sad but I feel like a lot of these accidents can be avoided by staying road smart and wearing protective gear.

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San Diego began impounding scooters during comicon. $65 per scooter and they had impounded over 2,500!!! No one cares about the rent a scooter. I dislike them for all the reasons you stated and the added negative that we get lumped into their group. The scooters need to have stricter rules and fines for the user for leaving them where they shouldn’t be or riding them like an asshole

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Lol for real, they should. Comicon is one of the most insane times for downtown, I can’t imagine those scooters going through cosplay and all that stuff going on.

For me it just important we don’t get lumped into the same category.

My experience is, as long as you are respectful, don´t shock people, obey traffic laws, stay on small roads and don´t ride on sidewalks people don´t care. On my commute people often times wave at me with a big smile, there are even volunteer traffic guards for school kids who are greeting me each morning and are trying to have an English conversation.
The thing is, I am in West Japan, Osaka, people are much more accepting here, don´t follow rules as much as in Tokyo. In the subway here people never wait in lines like in Tokyo. Grandmas will have loud conversations on public transport, you won´t find that in Tokyo. The biggest crackdown was on E-bikes from China which are solely motor powered, those where even broadcasted on the main TV news but are legal now with number plates insurance etc.
The only times people got angry at me where when I was using my screaming gear drive and came from behind.
Tokyo looks cool and progressive from the outside but is much more domesticated and conservative then Osaka.
As you have experienced, parked bicycles and traffic in general are a big mess in Japans dense Citys, legalizing e-skates would solve so many issues.
The most common vehicle to get to train stations is bicycle and you have to pay around 150-200$ in parking fees a month. There is no legal free parking spot for bikes and you are not allowed to take them on the Subway. Creating a legal EV which is transportable or requires much less space for parking might be a really good business opportunity here.
Sorry for the long post in bad English!

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This is cool to learn about, your English is good. :slightly_smiling_face: