E-bikes are having a moment, aren’t they? They’re outselling electric cars and bringing more people out of their cars and onto bicycles.
Those electric cars require a driver’s license to be driven, while e-bikes don’t. That might change with recent proposals from New York City and California.
The two proposals made this year would require additional regulation on e-bike riders around who can ride them, how old they need to be, education, and more. Considering how we legislate and adapt to a fast-growing population of e-bike riders is necessary to ensure more people have the option to travel by bike.
But restricting and regulating who has e-bikes through licenses is not the answer.
Let’s talk about the proposals
The most recent proposal is called Introduction 758, an approximately 400-word bill that cuts right to the chase. Here’s what it requires according to its summary:
“This bill would require every bicycle with electric assist, electric scooter, and other legal motorized vehicle that is not otherwise required to be registered with the DMV, to be registered with DOT and receive an identifying number which would be displayed on a visible plate affixed to the vehicle.”
The bill suggests that e-bikes and scooters in New York City receive license plates the same way as mopeds currently do. The problem here, however, is that e-bikes are legalized differently from other vehicles, much less mopeds.
Now THIS is a PRESS CONFERENCE/RALLY!
NYC-EVSA on Bob Holden Bill 0758 @galeabrewer @CMSandyNurse @CMBrooksPowers @BobHoldenNYC @NYCSpeakerAdams @ShaunAbreu pic.twitter.com/qYVXbrsmDf— NYC E-Vehicle Safety Alliance (@nyc_evsa) December 7, 2023
According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), a bicycle (including an e-bike) must have two or three wheels, fully operable pedals, an electric motor of less than 750 Watts, and travel at less than 20 mph solely under motor power. These bikes are tested to meet certain CPSC certifications for braking, assembly difficulty, frame strength, and more. While these standards aren’t perfect, they do a decent job of drawing the line on what a bicycle is.
Unsurprisingly, the CPSC doesn’t have a definition for a moped. Why’s that? It’s under the jurisdiction of the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which limits moped speeds to 30 miles per hour (50 kph) with motors that produce 2 horsepower and do “not require the operator to shift gears.”
According to PeopleforBikes, 48 of 50 states in the U.S. regulate e-bikes in a way similar to traditional bicycles. Alaska recently adopted a bill defining e-bikes as the same as bicycles, leaving Rhode Island as the only state to define e-bikes as anything other than a bicycle. As of this writing, you do not need a license to ride an e-bike.
The fundamental difference in regulation – and regulator agencies – means that you simply can’t go through the DMV. Licensing e-bikes and scooters would require the New York Department of Transportation to pick up the pieces as they scramble to license electric bike share bikes, delivery e-bikes, and everyone else in between. Law enforcement struggles to enforce registrations on cars and mopeds in the area; adding bikes only gets more complicated.
Another bill proposed earlier this year in California – Assembly Bill 530 – proposes a ban on young people from riding e-bikes. Further, it would require all riders to receive a state-issued ID card if they don’t already have a driver’s license. This would include passing a written test as well as an e-bike safety training program through the DMV and CHP.
At best, the proposals force government entities to spend money on needless registrations and place the burden on bike riders to ensure safety. More likely it criminalizes unregistered e-bikes, giving police another reason to ticket someone, should they decide to. Increasing requirements to ride a bike decreases ridership, decreasing bike and pedestrian safety along the way.
Any way you slice it, these proposals do nothing to discourage dangerous road use from drivers and cyclists alike. And while mandating road use can certainly be of benefit, mandated licensing does little to stop the 7,500 pedestrian deaths from cars in the country in 2021.
There are better solutions than an e-bike license
These concerns around the safety of cyclists, pedestrians, and even drivers are all valid. It’s understandable that people aren’t worried, and it makes sense that public officials want to implement restrictions in the hopes of making streets safer.
E-bikes outsell electric cars in the United States, and considering how fun riding e-bikes are, more and more will continue to add an e-bike as a way to get around. But the answer isn’t regulating how people use their e-bikes. Rather it is to regulate dangerous e-bikes, encourage education, and improve infrastructure.
The first answer is to tamp down on what e-bikes are sold in the U.S. As it stands, there are far too many e-bikes with unsafe, untested, and unregulated electrical systems. There are also too many bikes that might legally be marketed as e-bikes, but are far faster – and more powerful – than they should be, with “off-road” modes to skirt their way around having something that is more moped than bicycle.
That doesn’t even begin to address the vast aftermarket of add-on electric motors and assist systems that can make some bikes faster than they should, much less the used market.
How that is enforced becomes quite a bit murkier. Federal enforcement of the UL2849 electrical standard and the Class 1, 2, and 3 e-bike classification system would be the most encompassing way to make bikes safer and ensure that young children don’t end up on mopeds and motorcycles masquerading as e-bikes as some are currently.
The second component of a solution is education. Requiring some form of class attendance before being able to purchase an e-bike can teach folks the rules of the road as well as how to best handle their e-bike. Programs like E-Bike Smart provide free education for folks on how to best navigate the open road and feel confident riding their e-bike, with actionable steps to make their rides safer.
Programs like this are entirely voluntary in the U.S.; most folks who want to attend a safety course are likely already concerned about how they conduct themselves on the road. It also doesn’t address the used market or folks who buy aftermarket e-bike kits. Teaching bicycle rules of the road education in schools as done in the Netherlands could be a solution.
The third component has to be improved cycling infrastructure. Most people riding e-bikes won’t read stories like this, much less read the regulations; they’re just going to go out and ride. Building protected bike lanes is one step toward lowering the number of crashes between cars and cyclists in a way that is intuitive to understand. We highlighted recently how building a network of protected bike lanes not only lowers the risk of crashes between cyclists and pedestrians but also cuts accidents between bikes and cars by 50 percent while increasing rider comfort.
When infrastructure is built around how drivers behave, it forces every other road user to behave the same way. If they can’t, crashes, injuries, and deaths will continue to happen.
Anything done to encourage some level of enforcement or create a new regulatory scheme for people who want to bike will only discourage cycling. An E-bike license and regulation ignores the root causes for the dangers we’re seeing today in a lack of regulation of what bikes can be sold here, the lack of education, and infrastructure that simply does not keep up with the needs of cyclists.
Regulating e-bikes won’t solve traffic violence
An e-bike is “a true car replacement.” An e-bike makes long, hilly commutes far simpler. An e-bike alleviates the sprawl and challenges that come with navigating our modern cities. An e-bike helps people who can’t otherwise get around on a bike to greatly improve their mobility and get exercise. An e-bike can reduce dependency not only on cars but also on our often substandard public transit. Regulating who can have these e-bikes through a license only makes riding harder for those who follow the law already.
Education around road rules needs to improve. Regulations need to clamp down on e-bikes that clearly skirt the law. But the most important piece here is that e-bikes need to have a proper place on our streets. Until that happens, anything else is a step in the wrong direction, including e-bike licenses.
Welcome to the Urbanist Update. My job here might be as a tech editor, but I’ve also spent tons of time studying transportation, city planning, and engineering. Here are some of the things I’ve found interesting over the past week related to biking in cities, cycling infrastructure, and urbanism.
What is urbanism? In short, it is the study of how the inhabitants of an urban area interact with their towns and cities. If you care about building sustainable communities that let you live a happy and healthy life, then this is the spot for you. See previous Updates here.