Throttled motors on ebikes are terribly unsafe, compared to pedal assist central motors. I just got rear-ended by an illegally hot-rodded fat bike with a throttle, when the asshole lost control of his bike after hitting my rear wheel trying to pass at illegally high speed without bothering to ring his bell, and he flipped over and spilled onto the bike path.
I was fine, but surprised he so carelessly and thoughtlessly sneaked up on me and tried to pass when I was already going fast downhill off of a bridge over a canal, on my legal eBike with 25 kph maximum assist.
Pedaling makes you pay attention and gives you direct control over the speed, and the assist drops out once you're going >25 kph. The asshole who hit me from behind probably didn't have time to find the throttle with his hand, and was never really in control of his bike or paying much attention up to when he freaked out and hit me.
What to do about fatbikes endangering our safety?
https://www.reddit.com/r/Netherlands/comments/1knza1c/what_t...
Fatbikes in the Netherlands 2026: What You Actually Need to Know
To be clear, when i said we need controls on the handlebars, i was talking about an "assist level setting" like you have on the app, not a throttle. I had this on all my electric bikes: a button and a small LCD to indicate assist level 0-3.
Although in my experience when your bike/cargo is heavily loaded, a throttle is nice to get running, especially when stopped at a red light going uphill. Borrowed one like this and it was really useful. But i agree with your sentiment i see many people with throttled bikes going really fast and careless.
This drives me mad as well. Electric bikes should be limited to 25kph and non throttled in Europe, yet half the bikes I see are both, and drive recklessly.
The other day I was passed by one which kept up with the cars on the main road, which has a speed limit of 80km/h. Most cars don't go full speed there, but will reach at least 60km/h . On it were two young boys without helmets. It's insane.