The major crackdown on e-bike has begun

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Last week, I did something I don’t normally do, which was call up an elected official and yell at them about a new bill.

New Jersey’s car-savvy lawmakers had just passed legislation that would severely restrict e-bike ownership in the state, and I was furious. There’s clearly a lot of concern about the growing number of teens being injured and killed while riding e-bikes, many of which are powerful, high-speed bikes that resemble motorcycles more than bicycles. Lawmakers claim they are merely trying to impose some order on what has become an increasingly unruly and unregulated market.

But the bill unnecessarily combines high-powered motorcycles with low-speed, pedal-assisted bicycles, which are often used by food delivery workers or parents who want to take their children to school without using a car. Forcing someone who owns a non-throttle e-bike that can’t go faster than 20 mph to register their bike with the DMV, get a license, and purchase insurance seems ridiculous on its face, and would completely harm efforts to encourage more sustainable transportation in the state. For this reason, I called my governor and asked him to veto the bill.

Good, He didn’t listen.

Now, New Jersey residents will have to deal with one of the most restrictive e-bike laws in the country. Bicycle advocates are aghast at how this bill passed through the legislature and was signed into law at the eleventh hour by the outgoing governor. They worry that other states will follow New Jersey’s lead, given the growing panic around teens riding e-bikes.

New York City recently E-bike speed limits are 15 mphwhich is painfully slow and deprives the e-bike of its ability to outperform SUVs and multi-ton trucks on crowded city roads. Now some Manhattan residents are calling for an outright ban on e-bikes in Central Park, citing a small number of collisions between pedestrians and e-bikes. Meanwhile, lawmakers said… California proposed a bill It would ban the sale of e-bikes with motors exceeding 750 watts of power.

Lawmakers are certainly receiving heavy criticism from their constituents over the proliferation of high-powered, high-speed e-bikes in their communities. Log into any city’s Facebook group, and you’re likely to find plenty of interesting chatter about teens riding e-bikes. Their fears are often justified. Due to the increasing rate of injuries and deaths associated with e-bikes. This is a solvable problem Better infrastructure And more safety education, for both parents and their children.

But when these complaints lead to disastrous legislation, as is the case in New Jersey, they negatively impact the broader community of people who want to use low-cost, environmentally friendly transportation to replace car trips — including teens. Multiple studies have shown that e-bikes exist It is ridden more often than traditional bicyclesusually used for Replacement car tripswhich leads to Reduced carbon emissions and cleaner, healthier communities. But instead of supporting and enhancing this mode of transportation by building bike lanes to protect commuters, lawmakers have become more reactionary, failing to address the real safety issues that contribute to the high number of deaths and injuries on our roads: cars.

Bike defenders scramble To fix glaring problems With New Jersey’s e-bike law, hopefully energy will be redirected toward stricter rules around kids and e-bikes. Their success is not a guarantee.

But in the meantime, misinformation about e-bikes is spreading online. My colleagues on the Montclair bike bus are running Inundated with negative comments From people who irrationally equate all e-bikes with death and danger, and fail to understand the huge difference between a 40mph electric dirt bike and a throttle assist bike that tops out at 20mph.

None of this is surprising. In a car-dependent country like the United States, we sometimes fail to recognize the need to promote better, more sustainable modes of transportation, rather than working within the same broken, car-centric system. There are many names for this phenomenon – windshield bias, car brain, Kinetic standard – The opinion that all decisions should be in the service of the car. Lawmakers are particularly vulnerable to these biases.

It’s true that some e-bikes are dangerous, just like some cars. But treating all e-bikes as equal, regardless of power and speed capabilities, doesn’t take into account the enormous potential of e-bikes. I can’t help but think that e-bikes are victims of their own success. I’ve seen bad comments from drivers upset about having to slow down for a migrant delivery worker, or a mother with her kids on a cargo bike, or about a new bike lane in their city. E-bikes are as polarizing as they are popular, so it was perhaps inevitable that motorists, who cannot afford any delay, no matter how slight, would strike back.