It's not jealousy. Get that out of your head. You might think differently if you thought it was cool with some douchebag riding a wheelie through an intersection where someone had the right away and almost killed him because he doesn't understand traffic lights.
It's been a huge problem in my community here in South Orange County. It's not just these assclowns disobeying traffic laws and riding like idiots. They are offensive to residents and harassing even elderly people. A couple weeks ago, I dropped my grocery basket because this moron surprised me out of nowhere riding his e-bike throw the aisle. Maybe a year ago, I stepped in because this 'gang' were stopping an old man from pulling out of his parking space. I didn't even say anything, I just walked up on the scene and they fled. Fucking cowards. I could tell you stories upon stories. Happens every single day with these teens pretending they are invincible. These are not isolated incidents to just me. OCPD is in the gray area of doing what they can to solve the problem. A big problem is many of these clowns are riding e-bikes that are only off-road legal in the first place. OCPD is stepping up in impounding them more than they were 2-3 years ago.
I can only speak for my area but it's way far past "kids will be kids". I'm sure 90% clearly have never been slapped and punched for the dumb shit they're doing. I'm not trying to be a Karen here... I don't like bullies and it's unfortunate that a lot of these losers act like bullies with no consequence to their actions.
Personally, I don't exactly get it. These e-bikes aren't exactly cheap. If I was going to take that kind of money, I'd rather buy a 5-10 year old small dirtbike to ride around town for random errands. But I'm not 15, so...
This is not kids getting a start at being full-fledged motorcyclists in the future. It's just a bunch of entitled assholes. If they were required to take a written test, actually learn the rules of the road, take a riding test and get licensed, they would not be riding e-bikes because that would be too much effort. One of my best friend's daughter rides her e-bike to school and to work. She does not care about turning into a rider later in life even when I speak the gospel of two wheels when I'm at her mom's house for game nights. It's a convenient tool for her, that's it. A step up from riding a bicycle but far from being a future full-fledged motorcycle rider. That's just anecdotal though...
Disclaimer: On the surface level, I have no problem with e-bikes. I think they're a great solution for short distance transportation, especially in congested cities. My friends in Los Angeles, San Fracisco, urban cities like that, their experience is very different than mine. More of it is utilitarian use of e-bikes by adults and that makes sense. Not the latest fad their parents bought them so they don't have to actually be attentive parents.
