@His_Highness - that's called "breaking the social contract". They see cyclists who flaunt traffic laws as lawless and reckless.
/open book
I don't advocate riding through lights or similar but the fact is, even at top speeds, a mechanical bike won't be fatal in most collisions (and is usually fatal to the rider more) unless the person involved is elderly or somehow infirm. It's a total false equivalency to try to say bikes are even a fraction as dangerous as cars to pedestrians or otherwise. Personally, I try to set an example on the road and often feel drivers respect me more for doing so.
Electric mo(tor)peds are far heavier and generally traveling at higher speeds, which logically = a more dangerous vehicle. Also, a giant disgusting 50lb battery is far from eco-friendly, especially compared to my entire 20 pound aluminum bike. Can you imagine if the citizens of NYC adopted a cycling culture similar to the dutch? Every able bodied person for whom it was reasonable started cycle commuting and using a bike for everyday travel? Our air quality would likely improve overnight. During lockdown the air quality improvement was miraculous.
Meanwhile everyone (including police) drives on their phones (yeah, guarantee most of the cops arent using them in the commission of official business either), which has been proven as dangerous as drunk driving and is illegal in NYC. The homicidal/suicidal driving habits I see in general are astounding. I know a young guy in my neighborhood who drives on his phone, period. Driving time is sitting in a chair phone time, in NYC! After driving with him once I promised myself never again and told him he was an accident waiting to happen. Last year he got in an accident and permanently damaged his hand and back. After he tells me about the accident I asked if he was on his phone when it happened and his face just dropped because he knew he was and actually didn't deny it.
Werner Herzog did a short film about people who killed others because they were on their phones called, "From one second to the next". You can find it on YouTube.
11 years I've commuted, exercised, and used a bike for utilitarian purposes. And oh yes, I have been run off the road by impatient drivers. I was doored twice (once by a tourist and once by a WW2 vet). Right hooked once by a devout Christian who kept citing her religiousness like it excused it her for no reason while I'm dripping blood down my arm. As I was leaving I told her to literally "watch out for aetheists" as a small injection of humor, and she completely took it the wrong way (fucking people).
Have had quite a few people step right out in front of me on their phones with barely a second to spare to stop. One lady who stepped in front of me on her phone near Rockefeller center looked up from her phone at me I said to her, "Nice phone! Now you know where to stick it." A young lady flung her taxi door open once and my front tire stopped just short of the inside door handle. She looked right at me and said in a snobby tone, "Wouldn't of been my fault." And I brayed laughter in her face. In the 1 year since we've had Revel E-scooters (they look like Vespas) I've seen multiple people have serious injurious accidents as well as people riding them on sidewalks, bike lanes, bridge pedestrian paths, and lane splitting on them. In just the last few years I've rolled up on more car accidents that had just happened, including a pedestrian struck by an SUV, than I had in the like 8 years prior. I came upon a car being pulled up onto a flatbed on Manhattan Ave in Brooklyn near a light. I asked the middle aged tow truck driver if he's seen more accidents since the spread of smart phones and without missing a beat he said absolutely.
In 11 years of cycling in all weather in NYC I've
seen things. I see so much nutty stuff from my bike on any given day sometimes I forget most of it before I get home. I just want to get home alive. In all that time my experience has been like that of a progression through the levels of a video game.
In 2010 smart phones were not ubiquitous, e-bikes were ridden by food delivery guys almost exclusively, Uber/Lyft didn't exist at the scale it is now, and Amazon trucks were not everywhere. Incrementally these elements have been introduced over that time period and made an extremely dangerous cycling environment exponentially more so.
I also have done many good samaritan acts from my bike, as it is much more convenient to stop briefly and help someone from a bike than from a car. Walking the elderly across a busy intersection at night. Pulling a construction cone out from under an elderly ladies car. Administering first aid to a kid that fell off his bike. Helping other cyclists with minor roadside repairs. Reporting a person in medical distress that was being ignored by the rush hour around him. Reporting dangerously intoxicated drivers to police.
This is a lifestyle for me, first and foremost. Most other cyclists are hobbyists. Americans look at bikes like they are toys not transport. I'm on the bridge when the ice is thick or the heat is 100+. My fitness, my carbon footprint, the money I've saved, the experiences and athletic accomplishments, absolutely priceless; and if I die on my bike tomorrow, it has all been worth it.
/close book
@Polarbearboy - I would like to reiterate my feelings towards people of your experience and age transitioning to e-bikes as I think that's what they are intended for. You were a dedicated mechanical cyclist with many accomplishments of your own, until the day came where you wanted to enjoy the ride more without the wear on your already rugged frame. If/when I get to your age, I can imagine making a transition to pedal assist. For people who are older or somehow not physically capable of riding a mechanical bike I totally think e-bikes are great. I mostly take exception with the reckless casual riders on e-bikes (and countless other types of e-mobility) in my bike lanes here in NYC.