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Lawmakers passed a bill this session that now categorizes the high-powered e-bikes as motorbikes.
That means riders will need to be 16 years old and have a driver’s license with a motorcycle endorsement to ride electric bikes with throttles that can exceed 20 mph.
Davis County Republican Rep. Paul Cutler’s House Bill 381 garnered strong support on Capitol Hill this session.
“This bill only deals with traffic on a highway, so it’s only on a highway, in a road,” Cutler said in a legislative committee meeting last month. “We don’t deal with sidewalks; we don’t deal with trails; we don’t deal with things that are off on the side of the road. It’s only on a highway itself.”
When lawyers and lawmakers say “highway,” they mean paved public roads in general.
As far as trails and sidewalks, HB381 allows local governments to create their own e-motorcycle rules.
Safety is the goal, Cutler said, and his bill also requires everyone under 21 years old to wear a helmet on any e-bike. It mandates safety courses for young riders who want to ride without parental supervision.
Registered nurse Katherine Stokes told lawmakers Intermountain Health emergency rooms treated 536 e-bike or e-scooter injuries in 2025, and just 2 in 5 patients had been wearing helmets.
“At Primary Children’s we have seen a 66.7% increase in e-bike and e-scooter injuries in just one year,” she said. “With riders as young as 8 years old coming in with life-threatening injuries.”
A pair of 13-year-olds in Summit County were recently injured in an e-motorcycle accident. It happened on Kilby Road March 13.
The Summit County Sheriff’s Office says the boys collided while riding electric dirt bikes. One was injured in the crash. The other was hit by a box truck when he was moving the bikes from the road. Both are expected to recover.
The e-bikes they were riding would be categorized as motorcycles under HB381.
Unless Cox vetoes it on or before Thursday, the law goes into effect May 6.
