State Might Require All E-Bikes to Be Registered and Insured
Welcome once again to Leo’s law here’s Steve leato everyone’s talking about electric cars these days but ebikes are also a big thing and James sent me a note and said check out the story from electrek.co and uh Mike at to wrote this watch out New Jersey Bill to require all
Ebike Riders to register and get insurance and uh that would be a um an unusual step I think uh it’s been a rough week for anyone who enjoys the freedom of riding ebikes he writes without undue State applied Hassle and burden the latest news sure to disappoint ebike Riders and proponents
Of reduced car usage comes from the Garden State where a pending New Jersey Bill seeks to require ebike Riders to register their bikes and carry liability insurance the news follows in the heels of other major ebike crackdowns including a California plan to require a special driver’s license for them uh and
A new practice by Dutch police of stopping ebike Riders and performing pering roadside speed compliance checks the bill in New Jersey outlines the new ebike requirements and they uh discussing that this week that legislation is thought to have a significant support in the state legislature and it would also apply to
Electric scooter riders the bill aims to require of ebikes and E Scooters the same type of registration and liability insurance regulations currently apply to Motor Vehicles such as cars and motorcycles this is despite electric bicycles and E Scooters repeatedly being classified as consumer products and not motor vehicles at the federal level and
I can tell you that in Michigan for instance a motor vehicle is defined one way and it specifically excludes some kinds of electric powered like skateboards and so on and so they recognize there’s a distinction but it’s going to depend on the definition in your state and of course the legislators
Are the ones who make the definitions support for the new legislation is built around several fatal crashes involving ebikes though streets blog pointed out that the actual numbers betray the reasoning compared to 192,000 fatalities linked to automobiles in the four-year period we’re talking about there are just 119
Fatalities linked to ebikes in other words it’s roughly 1,600 to1 the ratio now of course as more ebikes are coming in those numbers could rise but the ratio uh is going up thus if the goal is to save lives there is far lower hanging fruit that doesn’t require climbing all
The way up the canopy for a few tiny apples the question I have and I’m curious about this I don’t know is how often are ebikes involved in collisions that result in injuries uh and the question also is are you saying you’d have to register an
Ebike to have it anywhere or is that to ride it on certain kinds of Roads uh I suspect that many places would say well you can’t ride them on the sidewalk so I guess the only way to get around would be on the road but on the other hand when I’m riding my
Bicycle I’m often on the shoulder or right up against the uh edge of the road depending on what the train is like out there the legislation is widely condemned by ebike Riders being an unnecessary burden they will only serve to decrease the number of people riding
Bikes increase the number of cars on the road and result in even more deaths due to the lopsided Transportation impact of the legislation many ebike riders choose to commute on two wheels because they can’t afford a car with a new car payment in US costing $73 a month on
Average you can buy a decent Commuter ebike for just a single month of car payment and considering most ebike Riders spend less than a dollar a month on uh operating expenses the small amount amount of Maintenance pales in comparison to the maintenance and operating costs of cars thus the
Proposed bill would likely put a reasonable inequitable burden on low-income Riders who may not be able to afford the cost of registration or monthly Insurance many other Riders have purchased an ebike as a lowcost alternative allowing them to leave their car the garage more often and commute
Whenever and wherever possible but if a second insurance policy is required more part-time e-bikers could be dissuaded from adopting alternatives to their cars the real question I have and people can weigh in on this I do not own a motorcycle I know people who do I know people who own many motorcycles however
I never have so I can’t speak from direct experience but my understanding is that the insurance on a motorcycle is substantially less than the insurance on a car and I suspect that the insurance on an ebike would be even less than that on a motorcycle
So I’m just curious to know how much the insurance would cost I’m not saying it’s a good thing I’m simply asking the question uh and then the other question is about registering them um you know I remember when I was a little kid in Birmingham Michigan they actually passed
A a city ordinance and I can’t remember if it was mandatory or recommended that you license your bike through the city of Birmingham and they said that they were doing that so your bike got stolen they could recover it and get it back to you and I remember being a little kid
Riding my bike to the store and actually being hassled by a cop who said why don’t you have a license on your bike and I’m like dude I’m 8 years old go talk to my parents and I seem to recall that it wasn’t uh a direct law in the sense that
You were required to have it they had a program that they recommended you use and still um you know if there’s a going to be a cost Associated because you know there is they always look at these as first they go oh think of the kids think
Of the people then they say oh well you got to pay a couple bucks to administer the program next thing you know it’s a revenue stream and so they go gee there’s how many thousands of ebikes out there and we make this much per bike that’s this much money we’re to make
Well let’s charge this much per bike then we’ll make this much money and of course they always forget the economic impact of raising prices over here and that diminishing the number of people who choose to go that option but the real question I have is how much the
Insurance is going to cost I’m not saying it’s a good thing I’m not I’m not I’m not in favor of this I personally think that unless the ebikes are doing 75 M hour I don’t think you need to actually treat them any different than a regular bicycle okay because you know
Riding a bicycle on the road you can get hurt too the bulk of the harm that’s going to be caused by me on a bicycle is going to come to me or my bicycle okay the odds of me getting into a bike car crash and they’re being substantial harm to the
Car very very low very very low so I don’t see that that’s necessary however I simply have the question one is what would it cost and number two are there any statistics yet on how many crashes there are involving ebikes where it’s caused harm or injury to someone other
Than the person on the bike and or to the bike itself that’s a question I have but as of right now New Jersey is considering this and they’re right Mike a told electrek.co is Right absolutely right that by putting these kinds of laws in place it will discourage people
From using them and if you look at the you know equation as a whole it’s good to have people using ebikes instead of cars if that’s one of the choices that’s being made out there so you’d want to encourage that not discourage that thanks James watch out New Jersey Bill
To require all ebike Riders to register and get insurance hasn’t passed yet but they’re discussing it right now questions your comments put them below let’s talk to you later bye-bye thank you for watching lato law okay you have to stop the Q-tip when there’s resistance
In New Jersey.
