It’s time to talk about ebikes again! There’s some bad legislation popping up in other states, and a lot of chatter about how ebikes are becoming ~a menace~.
First let’s clarify the machines we’re talking about.
Categories of ebike (and what’s not an ebike):
Class 1 ebikes are pedal-assist-only bikes—the motor only provides power while you are pedaling, and the motor stops helping when you pass 20mph. Capital Bikeshare ebikes and most ebikes you would buy in a bike shop fall into this category.
Class 2 ebikes also stop providing power at 20mph, but they have a throttle that lets you control the motor without pedaling. They tend to be more affordable than Class 1 ebikes because the drive systems are a bit simpler. Current iterations of Lime bikes, Veo bikes, and many direct-to-consumer ebikes fall into this category.
Class 3 ebikes, sometimes called Pedelecs, are similar to Class 1, but the motor provides assistance up to 28 mph. They sometimes have throttles, but the throttle stops providing power over 20mph. Some cargo bikes, e-mtbs, and electric hybrids fall into this category.
E-Motos are not ebikes. They are any two-wheeled vehicles with an electric motor that can propel the rider faster than 20mph without pedaling. While some have pedals, these devices are closer to mopeds or motorcycles than bicycles. They are often sold disingenuously as “street legal” ebikes or similar. They are often (but not always) heavier, and sometimes feature motorcycle-like seats.
Electric Scooters, also not ebikes, have two wheels and handlebars but no seat or pedals, and are typically operated with a throttle.
Sit Down Scooters (sometimes called electric mobility devices, and also not ebikes) have two wheels, handlebars, and a seat, but no pedals. They are operated with a throttle.
What’s dangerous about ebikes:
Most of the risks involved in riding an ebike are the same as riding a regular bike: sharing space with drivers making unsafe decisions.
That said, ebikes are heavier than regular bikes, and they make it easier to go faster, which can increase risk in spaces shared with pedestrians and non-electric bikes. That easy access to speed can exacerbate unsafe riding behaviors—passing too closely, riding unpredictably, and other activities that are mostly just annoying at 8 miles per hour become legitimately dangerous at 20 miles per hour on a heavier bike.
What’s not dangerous about ebikes:
Many of the questions we receive about ebike safety are about young people on ebikes. We think it’s worth pointing out that a subset of those complaints boil down to: “there are [some euphemism for youth of color] on ebikes in my neighborhood and that makes me uncomfortable.” To those folks we say: that’s a you-should-interrogate-your-biases problem, not a transportation policy problem.
But it’s also true that there are a lot of young people on ebikes in the city right now. Some of them are just going to school or work or pedaling around the neighborhood for fun. But there are also teens doing wheelies or groups cruising around on Lime bikes, taking up space and asserting their presence as teenagers have always done. And it’s important to state even that is not, in itself, actually a problem. Bikes are cool and young people should be allowed to ride them for fun, for transportation, or to irritate us grownups.
Which is not to say that it’s ok for kids to ride an ebike at 18mph down a busy sidewalk. Unsafe riding is a real problem, but we don’t think it’s one that can be solved by trying to prohibit youth from using ebikes, or by increased policing. Young people are going to ride bikes, and young people are generally not good at assessing risk to themselves or others. Successfully mitigating risk here means making sure there are systems in place so that youth can ride safely—that can be achieved by regulating the devices they have access to (see more in the table below), and by making sure they have safe places to ride.
Good behavior is important, but it’s not something that can be universally enforced.
It’s always an infrastructure problem.
Look, you’ve heard us say this before. The fundamental problem here is not bikes. Or ebikes. Or even young people making questionable decisions on ebikes. The problem is that everyone who is not inside an automobile is crammed into the literal margins of public space, competing for the slivers of right of way not given over to moving and storing cars.
It’s well documented that the best way to keep people from biking on the sidewalk is to build on-street bike infrastructure that people feel safe riding on. That’s usually a protected bike lane. Similarly, as trail use grows, lots of places have started expanding trails to include separated spaces for people on foot and people biking (locally, this includes parts of the W&OD Trail in Falls Church). We think this is the way forward.
Personal devices vs Shared micromobility
Many of the ebikes and scooters on the road right now are shared devices—part of publicly accessible micromobility fleets like Capital Bikeshare (owned by local governments), Lime, and Veo (owned by private, for-profit companies). We think that shared micromobility devices should be more tightly regulated than personally owned devices. Here’s how we break that down:
| Personally Owned | Shared Micromobility | |
| Class 1 Ebike | We have no concerns about these devices. | We have no concerns about these devices. |
| Class 2 (Throttle) Ebike | We have no concerns about these devices. | We think a 15mph speed cap on these devices is reasonable. See more discussion below about dynamic speed limiting. |
| Class 3 Ebike | We have no concerns about these devices. | We do not support Class 3 ebikes for shared micromobility. |
| E-Moto | E-motos should require registration and insurance, similar to mopeds. More importantly, we think sale of these devices, both online and in-store, should be more tightly regulated. As these devices are not ebikes, we don’t believe they should be in bike lanes or on bike trails. | We do not support e-motos for shared micromobility, and do not support their use in bike lanes or on trails. |
| Scooter | We think these devices warrant a 15mph speed cap—they are less stable than vehicles with larger wheels, and are small enough that riders often use them in spaces intended for pedestrians. | We think these devices warrant a 10mph speed cap, for all the reasons stated at left, with the added risk associated with how easy they are for inexperienced riders to access. We support initiatives like DC’s that use geofencing to further restrict speed in areas with heavier or more vulnerable pedestrian traffic (like schools). |
| Seated Scooter / Electric mobility device (no pedals) | We think these devices warrant a 15mph speed cap—the larger batteries make them heavier than most classed ebikes and in order to share space safely with pedestrians and non-electric bikes, they need to move a little slower. | We think these devices warrant a 15mph speed cap, for all the reasons stated at left, with the added risk associated with how easy they are for inexperienced riders to access. We support initiatives like DC’s that use geofencing to further restrict speed in areas with more or more vulnerable pedestrian traffic (like schools). |
Though the technology is currently not accurate enough, if or when micromobility devices have the ability to determine whether they are on a sidewalk, trail, or street, we support dynamic speed limiting based on those conditions.
Policy Solutions
Regulate e-motos at the manufacturer and retailer level. If e-motos remain easily purchased and deceptively marketed as ebikes, no amount of policing is going to make them go away. They should require a license and insurance to purchase—and must be clearly marketed as the motorcycles they are, and sales both online and in person should require an acknowledgement that they are not allowed on trails or in bike lanes.
Let kids ride bikes. As discussed above, bikes are useful and fun and young people should be allowed to ride them. The key to ensuring that happens safely is making sure that the devices they have access to are safe. Making it more difficult to purchase an overpowered (and often illegal) e-moto is one important step.
We also think that shared micromobility platforms—Capital Bikeshare and the private operators—should offer legal ways for youth to use their bikes. Rather than trying to prevent young people from circumventing their age restrictions, which the current situation belies as a near-impossible game of whack-a-mole, these services should offer youth accounts that are easy to access, but with more restrictions for young riders, for example:
- Lower overall top speed, to 15 or 12mph, depending on the device.
- More robust low speed zones and times—around schools or late at night. Scooters already use geofencing to reduce their top speed near schools. For youth accounts, this should be expanded to electric mobility devices and ebikes. Local governments should be able to easily add or adjust these zones if other unsafe riding hotspots emerge.
- Lower speeds when groups are detected: since these devices are GPS tracked, it should be possible to detect when groups of 4 or more riders using youth accounts are near each other and further restrict speed. This allows social riding to continue, but ensures that it happens at safer speeds.
- Requiring consent from a parent or guardian to sign up for an account creates an opportunity for discussion about rules and safety.
Infrastructure Solutions
Infrastructure over enforcement: Banning ebikes from sidewalks won’t stop people from riding on the sidewalk if the street doesn’t feel safe, it will just create more opportunities for biased policing. There’s not a legal distinction between a parent on a fancy cargo bike dropping kids at school and a teenager riding Lime for fun with their friends, but history makes it pretty clear which one is more likely to experience scrutiny and harassment from the police.
Make more space for people to ride safely and comfortably. Again, it’s well documented that the best way to prevent people from biking on the sidewalk is to build protected bike lanes. As more and more people ride bikes, electric or otherwise, local governments should treat sidewalk riding as demand for low-stress on-street bike facilities, and build them where people are riding on sidewalks.
Make more space for young people to have fun in public. Riding bikes is a way for young people to hang out and have fun together in public space, which is a perfectly reasonable thing to want to do. Local governments should consider youth on ebikes as part of larger conversations about funding parks and youth programming. It’s not reasonable to expect young people to remain quiet and out of the way. It’s their city too, and it’s incumbent on decision makers to ensure that youth have access to ample, safe public space.
Make space for the delivery economy. Ebikes are also transforming the gig economy right now, as more and more service workers use them as delivery vehicles. Local governments should repurpose parking spaces in delivery-dense areas to make space for ebike pickups and deliveries so these workers don’t feel like they need to use the sidewalk.
Ebikes are here to stay, and that’s good.
Biking is kind of addictive because it’s awesome. Once you start, it’s hard to go back. And for a lot of people now, an ebike is their entry point. We can’t put that genie back in the bottle, nor should we want to. Every new person on a bike or ebike is another person who’s not driving, another person who’s discovering the freedom, financial benefit, and community that comes with life on two wheels. That’s good for the world and our region. Policy and infrastructure should encourage it.
We think that safely integrating ebikes into our transportation ecosystem will take a combination of better infrastructure, smart regulation, and thoughtful use of technology.
Questions? Thoughts? Did we miss something? Send us an email.