IIHS maps America's Medium Speed Vehicle rules
There's a lot of grey in the map above, and each grey state indicates that there is no local law there defining the rules for medium-speed vehicles (MSVs). We've written plenty about low-speed vehicles, but what's an MSV? It's a car that " has some safety equipment such as lights, reflectors, mirrors, parking brake, windshield, and safety belts" and can go at least 30 mph (but not more than 35 mph).
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) denied a request, in 2008, to create a national MSV category, which means it falls to the states to define where these vehicles, often pure electric ones, can be legally driven. Eight states have bothered to do so (the ninth, Colorado, is colored in red because its laws will go into effect once the U.S. Department of Transportation defines MSV safety standards. NHTSA's reasoning to not define the MSV category was based on safety concerns, specifically that if a car can go 35, it would be OK to use on streets where the potential accidents would overwhelm the minimal safety equipment on board. You can read more about the decision in this PDF.
[Source: IIHS]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Lorena Palin 5:30PM (9/04/2009)
I'm just going to say this is a silly class of vehicles to begin with. 30-35 mph is a very small margin. For 2 wheeled vehicles with this low top speed it makes sense, as they are small and can be passed very easily.
A class of cars that had a 40-50 mph top speed would make much more sense. That speed is safe enough to keep up with traffic no matter what. I mean really, anything car sized should be able to go up to 50 mph- anything less disrupts traffic
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Platinum_Skeet 1:18PM (9/04/2009)
Eh more slow drivers.... =P
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Yanquetino 1:28PM (9/04/2009)
I must be missing something here. MSVs are really just LSVs with their motors governed at a slightly higher speed, with little or no safety features.
It seems to me that they are a species on the verge of extinction. Both the Miles ZX40S and the ZENN, fully equipped, cost around $21,000, sans taxes. With an increasing number of highway-capable EVs on the horizon (i-MiEV, Leaf, Th!nk, Aptera, Coda, etc.), wouldn't most consumers prefer to pay a bit more and drive a crash-tested EV on both neighborhood streets *and* freeways?
Now, I might see having an LSV in a retirement community *if* it is designed to do double-duty as a golf cart, but... the course managers are not going to let a ZENN onto the fairway. Might as well get a full-fledged EV.
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meme 1:38PM (9/04/2009)
What's annoying to me is that a motorcycle with virtually zero safety features has no restrictions on how fast it can go, but a vehicle like the Aptera, built to safety standards higher than that of most cars, may be classified as a MSV or autocycle by some states' definitions and be forced to be restricted in speed.
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Bill 7:51PM (9/04/2009)
Has Aptera bothered doing actual crash tests yet?
Until that happens states should treat it as a motorcycle & require helmets, regardless of how many computer simulations Aptera performs.
RAN 5:33PM (9/05/2009)
Even worse, bicycles that are slow as hell and have even less safety features can ride on virtually any city street, so why limit where MSVs can drive (except for freeways, of course)?