Less than two weeks before New Jersey begins requiring e-bike riders to obtain licenses or permits, register their bikes and, in some cases, carry insurance, bicycle safety advocates say the law will make it harder for people to use e-bikes without addressing the biggest causes of serious crashes.
The law, signed in January by former Gov. Phil Murphy, was prompted by a series of crashes involving e-bike riders across New Jersey, including fatal accidents.
Looking Beyond the Law
For Leigh Ann Von Hagen, executive director of Rutgers’ Voorhees Transportation Center, the law should be a lever into a larger conversation about the benefits of e-bike ridership proliferating.
E-bikes, she said, can be a part of the solution to many of New Jersey’s goals when it comes to issues such as reducing pollution, increasing local revenue, and reducing traffic fatalities. The law, she said, could help New Jersey legislators and communities look into resources that address some of what causes decreased safety for e-bike riders.
“Policies are always making sausage, right?” Von Hagen said. “I’d hope this is the first step in looking at other root causes. We don’t always have the best infrastructure for bicycling, and now that e-bikes are becoming more common, we need to look at that infrastructure, too. We also don’t have a coordinated education effort around bicycling or walking.”
“So there’s all sorts of opportunities to address further, how to make it safe,” she added. “I do think those things are needed”
Like Ceperley, Von Hagen feels there is a lack of clarity in how the new law will be enforced.
Although former Gov. Phil Murphy signed the law six months before it takes effect, the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission did not begin accepting appointments for e-bike licenses and registrations until June 26, just weeks before the July 19 deadline.
Riders Could Get Left Behind
The impending deadline and short turnaround for people to get their documents in order leaves a lot of questions unanswered, said Von Hagen.
“It would be great to have a more full conversation about what enforcement is going to look like so people can plan accordingly,” she said. “If you are pulled over on your bicycle, what you need to know, what to provide to an officer, what is the officer going to be looking for.”
Von Hagen said the discussion has also largely overlooked people who cannot obtain a driver’s license or who may struggle to afford registration and insurance.
“E-bikes are just a transformative, transformative technology. This new law is going to hurt the people who depend on them the most,” said Ceperley. “It’s going to hurt the delivery workers. It’s going to hurt the immigrants. It’s going to provide avenues for unscrupulous law enforcement to target these people on the roads in a very visible way, even if they’re riding very safely and they’re following traffic laws.”
Grishin sees those concerns firsthand. Many of his customers rely on e-bikes because they cannot drive.
Some have lost their driver’s licenses, while others cannot afford a car or ride-sharing services, he said.
“They rely on a simple e-bike as their transportation,” Grishin said.
According to Ashley Marks, senior public information officer for the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, the e-bike law does not provide for any accommodations or exemptions for riders with disabilities.
Von Hagen said many New Jersey residents who are neurodivergent or have disabilities are unable to obtain a driver’s license. She believes this law will stop them from riding e-bikes.