is transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeared in The New York Daily News and City & State.
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How it started
Last week, I did something I don’t typically do, which is call up one of my elected officials and yell at them about a new bill.
New Jersey’s car-brained lawmakers had just passed legislation that would impose heavy restrictions on e-bike ownership in the state, and I was livid. Obviously there’s been a lot of concern about the growing number of teenagers being injured and killed while riding e-bikes, many of them powerful, high-speed ones that are more akin to motorcycles than bikes. Lawmakers claim they’re just trying to bring some order to what is increasingly becoming a wild, unregulated market.
But the bill needlessly lumps together high-powered e-motos with low-speed pedal-assist bikes, often used by food delivery workers or parents who want to take their kids to school without using a car. Forcing someone who owns an e-bike without a throttle that can’t go faster than 20mph to register their bike with the DMV, acquire a license, and buy insurance seems ridiculous on its face, and will absolutely harm efforts to encourage more sustainable transportation modes in the state. And for that reason, I called up my governor and asked him to veto the bill.
How it’s going
Now, New Jerseyeans will be forced to reckon with one of the nation’s most restrictive e-bike laws. Bike advocates are aghast at how this bill sailed through the legislature and was signed into law at the eleventh hour by an outgoing governor. And they worry that other states will follow New Jersey’s lead, given the rising panic around teenagers riding e-bikes.
New York City recently capped e-bike speeds at 15mph, which is painfully slow and robs an e-bike’s ability to outmaneuver multi-ton SUVs and trucks on busy city roads. And now some Manhattan residents are calling for an outright ban on e-bikes in Central Park, citing a handful of collisions between pedestrians and e-bikes. Meanwhile, lawmakers in California have proposed a bill that would ban the sale of e-bikes with motors that exceed 750W of power.
To be sure, lawmakers are certainly getting an earful from their constituents about the proliferation of high-powered, high-speed e-bikes in their communities. Dip into any town’s Facebook group, and you’re likely to find a lot of pearl-clutching about teenagers riding e-bikes. And often their concerns are warranted, given the increasing rate of injuries and fatalities related to e-bikes. This is a problem that’s solvable with better infrastructure and more safety education, both for parents and their kids.
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