In Brief:
- Injuries related to e-bikes are on the rise around the country.
- More states and cities are passing regulations on who can ride e-bikes and how fast they can go.
- Advocates say some laws risk overregulating low-speed bikes while ignoring high-speed e-motos.
A new law regulating electric bicycles is raising hackles in New Jersey. Cyclists and mobility advocates in the state are hoping to have the regulations changed before a six-month enforcement grace period ends.
The bill, which was passed by the state Legislature last year and signed into law by former Gov. Phil Murphy during his last days in office, has been called the “most restrictive e-bike law in the U.S.” by PeopleforBikes, a national advocacy group. It changes the way e-bikes are categorized and imposes new restrictions on low-speed e-bikes, which are equipped with a pedal-assistance motor that turns off at 20 miles per hour. The law requires e-bike riders to be at least 15 years old and possess a valid driver’s license or e-bike license. It also requires riders to register their e-bikes and display license plates. Advocates say the legislation creates excessive burdens on the most common types of e-bikes, which don’t reach high speeds, while leaving higher-speed e-motos, which cause more problems, unregulated.
“It’s very contradictory, it’s not well thought out, and basically, we’re pissed,” says Debra Kagan, executive director of the New Jersey Bike and Walk Coalition.
Senate President Nicholas Scutari, a Democrat who sponsored the legislation, did not respond to an interview request. New Jersey state Sen. Raj Mukherji, a fellow Democrat who voted against the bill, was unavailable for an interview but confirmed his office is beginning work on a package of amendments.
The bill comes as e-bike and e-scooter injuries are on the rise nationwide. Researchers have estimated that e-bike-related injuries increased from around 750 in 2017 to more than 23,000 in 2022, with around 5,400 hospitalizations over that same six-year period. E-bike injuries also tend to be more severe than injuries related to traditional bikes. But advocates say reliable data on e-bike injuries, with granular information about the severity of injuries, the type of e-bike and whether other vehicles were involved, is still lacking.
“There’s anecdotes,” says Ken McLeod, policy director at the League of American Bicyclists, a national advocacy group. “But it’s really hard to make policy because we lack the data.”
Meanwhile, state and local regulations are flying. This year San Diego adopted a new set of e-bike rules prohibiting kids under age 12 from riding any e-bikes, even the basic pedal-assist models. Utah passed a law treating higher-speed e-bikes, which can surpass 20 miles per hour using only the motor, similarly to motorcycles. Los Angeles is considering banning e-bikes from hiking trails. The Illinois state legislature advanced a bill that would require a driver’s license, registration and insurance for devices that exceed 28 miles per hour.
Most states have adopted a classification system promoted by advocates which sorts e-bikes into three categories: Bikes with pedal assist only that can reach a 20-mph “assisted speed,” bikes with pedal assist and a throttle that can reach 20 miles per hour, and pedal-assisted bikes that can reach 28 miles per hour. But many e-bike models are customizable, and can be modified to go much faster. The fastest motorized e-bikes, or e-motos, are much more hazardous than low-speed pedal-assist bikes, advocates say. But it’s not always easy to tell them apart.
“I hear mostly from law enforcement and public safety folks, the folks who are interacting with e-bikes and e-motos everyday. They find it really hard to distinguish between the classes,” McLeod says. “There’s no visual way to do it.”
Just last week the city of Ankeny, Iowa, adopted new regulations setting speed limits on e-bikes and outlining where they can be ridden, while banning e-motos from sidewalks and trails. The rules were adopted following a spike in e-bike and e-moto use in the city, Iowa’s fifth largest. While the city hasn’t tracked any fatalities yet, there has been a spike in injuries, and most of the unsafe riding has been associated with fast-moving e-motos rather than low-speed e-bikes, says Trevor McGraw, a public information officer with the Ankeny Police Department. Some e-motos go 50 or 60 miles per hour, he says.
“When you introduce those speeds on what is expected to be a bike trail, that reduces reaction time and people’s ability to react to avoid collisions,” McGraw says.
E-bikes that reach high motor-assisted speeds are already illegal in most places, but their sale is poorly regulated and regulations are hard to enforce, McLeod says. One bill under consideration at the federal level, which has received bipartisan support, would create national standards to classify and label e-bikes while assembling data on crashes, injuries and deaths. At the local level, some jurisdictions are focused on education.
This spring, Santa Cruz City Schools is launching an e-bike safety course for middle school students. Casey O’Brien, director of student support services for the school district, says the schools have seen local data that matches national trends on rising injuries related to e-bikes. One student ended up in intensive care after an e-bike accident, he says. The safety course will focus on rules of the road, helmet safety and how to maintain brakes, among other things. Students will complete a supervised ride in the neighborhood surrounding their schools. And they’ll be required to complete the course before being able to park their bikes at school.
“We want them to ride and walk, and we want them to do it safely,” O’Brien says. “We feel some level of responsibility because they’re coming to school and parking their bikes on campus.”
People riding e-bikes have in some cases injured or killed other people on the roadways. New York City last year imposed a 15-mile-per-hour speed limit for e-bikes and initiated a crackdown on traffic offenses by delivery workers on e-bikes. But many e-bike injuries and deaths result from riders being hit by cars, and in some cases, advocates argue, policymakers ascribe broader hazards in the transportation system to the rise of e-bikes. Supporters of the law in New Jersey that passed last year cited recent deaths of young people riding e-bikes when introducing their bill. But in one of the instances, a girl riding an e-bike was previously stalked by the driver that killed her, and he was later charged with first-degree murder.
Advocates say overly broad and strict regulations on e-bikes risk sacrificing other policy goals, like climate-friendly transportation and mobility for people with disabilities, without solving safety issues on the roadways.
“The main issue of where fatalities are happening in our state is from cars, while there’s all this buzz and noise about what is basically a bike with a little motor that helps those of us who need a little help,” says Kagan. “This is going to push people away from using active transportation.”
