Cyclists are frustrated, upset. Is NJ’s new e-bike law already broken?

10-minute read

• While NJ’s new e-bike law sought to curb reckless and dangerous cycling, advocates say it is impacting those on low-speed bikes the most.
• The offices of Senate President Nicholas Scutari and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin did not respond to emails with basic questions about how to interpret the new law.
• The Motor Vehicle Commission has struggled to interpret the new law with confusing and conflicting information on its website and manual for e-bike owners.

Shannon and Frank Connor tried everything to teach their son how to ride a bike eight years ago, when he was 8 years old, even signing him up for a class.

“It was so sad to watch. Frank and I went every day and then all the other kids were getting it and he wasn’t,” said Shannon Connor, whose son, Jesse, is autistic, has limited verbal skills and struggles with coordination.

Connor began to grapple with the reality that Jesse might never be able to transport himself places independently as a teen and adult.

But in 2023, he tried an e-tricycle, a three-wheeled bike, with pedals and a throttle that gives it a boost up to 20 miles per hour.

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The e-trike’s throttle eliminated the need to pedal and balance so he could focus on steering.

Jesse squealed with unrepressed glee the first time he tried it. “It’s just a dream come true,” Connor said. “It’s a typical boyhood experience that he never would have been able to do without this e-trike.”

E-bikes unlocked a green, healthy form of exercise and independence for a wide range of people who didn’t previously have it, including those with disabilities and seniors who benefit from the extra power when pedaling. They have expanded job opportunities for delivery workers and provided mobility to those who might not have access to a car or who lost their license.

But as e-bike sales have surged, so, too, have injuries and death.

That prompted lawmakers to revise the state’s e-bike law first written in 2019. But what resulted was a widely criticized bill rushed through a lame duck session last year. That legislation — now the strictest cycling law in the country — goes into effect July 19. Since June 26, when the Motor Vehicles Commission began registering e-bikes, it has issued more than 4,100 e-bike registrations and 250 e-bike permits.

Proponents and opponents applauded parts of the new law, such as requiring all e-bike riders to wear helmets and creating a minimum age to ride at 15.

But critics say this law goes too far in overregulating people on low-speed bikes by requiring license, insurance and registration, and not doing enough to curb those on dangerous high-speed e-bikes.

The new law created two e-bike classes.

 A “low-speed e-bike” has pedal assistance from a motor that goes up to 20 mph.

A “motorized bicycle” has four possible definitions, including an engine under 50 cubic centimeters, and it can travel up to 28 miles per hour using pedals or a throttle.

Both classes now require license and registration, and motorized bicycles must also be insured.

Education-first approach to enforcement

Montville Police Chief Andrew Caggiano has seen a drastic increase in children riding e-bikes around town — and getting hurt doing so.

“Legislation was needed and I think this was a good effort to do that,” Caggiano said. “I believe that this legislation will save lives.”

Caggiano said his department is taking an education-first approach to enforcing the new law, and will stop kids and work with parents to make sure they understand the new law, and officers will use discretion for stricter enforcement.

“That’s not going to happen forever, but we will use our discretion at the beginning to focus on educating the public on what’s legal, what’s illegal — just give people the opportunity to a get their license and get the bike registered like they’re supposed to,” he said.

The rushed and confusing changes in the new law made it difficult for both residents — and even the Motor Vehicle Commission — to interpret it and comply, which cycling advocates say has discouraged cycling in the state.

In the months since its passage lawmakers discussed a fix-it bill to address a number of issues.

But the legislature broke for summer on July 1, without passing a fix-it bill.

“I’m open to fixing if there’s issues with e-bikes, but e-bikes are proliferating all over the place,” said Senate President Nicholas Scutari, who championed the new e-bike law, on June 30. “I think we took a good first step.”

“If there are issues with it, I’m open to fixing it,” he said. “I think everyone is.”

Who will feel the law’s effect?

The e-bike law will impact a wide swath of New Jersey residents, of whom more than 1 in 10 don’t have a car, making it the third highest rate of households without a vehicle of any state.

People with suspended licenses, who might rely on an e-bike to get to work or appointments because they can’t drive, can no longer legally ride them because of the new law. Undocumented workers, who may use e-bikes as deliveristas or to get to jobs, may hesitate to register e-bikes to avoid being in national databases used by Immigration Customs and Enforcement.

In addition to requiring a license and registration, e-bike owners have to provide the Motor Vehicle Commission with six points of identity and proof of bike ownership, such as a receipt, affidavit from the current owner or notarized bill of sale.

Advocates warned that people who can’t afford cars are often those at the lowest income levels and could end up encountering police more often if e-bike riders are being stopped for license, insurance and registration, or other requirements like head lamps and a rear light.

Law puts Jesse’s e-trike in gray area

Now, at 16, Jesse Connor confidently hops on his trike to go to the park with his friends, gets ice cream at the local Carvel, and rides around to wash cars in the neighborhood for a little cash.

The local crossing guards and police in their 3-square-mile town know Jesse well. You can’t miss him with his neon vest, high-visibility helmet, Autism awareness stickers and flags affixed to the trike.

The e-trike was life-changing for Jesse, who unearthed a new level of independence that seemed out-of-reach a few years ago.

It was also life-changing for the Connors, who opened an e-bike store in Shrewsbury last year, and founded “3 Wheels from Jesse,” a nonprofit that gifts electric tricycles to people on the autism spectrum to help them get to jobs and see friends and family.

“I want to leave this Earth making it better than when we got here and, to me, giving people mobility” was the way to do that, Connor said.

But for Jesse, the state’s new e-bike law puts his e-trike in a gray area.

Because the law does not explicitly mention three-wheeled electric tricycles, Jesse’s trike is exempt from the new regulations, according to the Motor Vehicle Commission. But federal law defines e-bikes as two- and three-wheeled vehicles with a motor that tops out at 20 mph.

Jesse can’t take a knowledge test needed to attain the new license — and there are no accommodations or exemptions for people with disabilities.

‘Uneven enforcement’

A list of 11 basic questions about the new e-bike law were sent to Scutari’s office and that of Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, the leaders of each chamber who wrote and passed the bill.

Neither provided answers to clarify these issues, such as whether e-bikes can legally tote passengers or cargo, and whether out-of-state visitors riding e-bikes must have a license, registration and insurance.

As a result, MVC is left to interpret the law and create regulations around it, but that has led to confusion.

MVC’s website did not initially address the issue of out-of-state visitors, but after NorthJersey.com sent a question about it, the agency updated its website saying visitors now must obtain a license, registration and insurance, if applicable, to legally ride an e-bike in New Jersey.

John Boyle, the research director for the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, said the issue of out-of-state riders could be a problem for e-bike delivery drivers and e-bike commuters in his area who travel between South Jersey and Pennsylvania frequently.

“My biggest concern is the first couple of weeks there’s going to be some uneven enforcement,” Boyle said. “I think some municipalities are gung-ho about this and want to start cracking down, and then there are others who don’t even know what the law is.

“What about out of-state people going to the shore?” Boyle said. “We can’t register but the law says you have to have all these things on you. How does that work?”

Some cyclists who brought their e-bike to MVC to register them were not able to prove when they purchased it and that they paid sales tax at that time — which for some residents was years ago — so MVC charged them sales tax again.

MVC, e-bike owners backpedal

When defining an e-bike, the information on MVC’s website conflicted with its own manual.

MVC’s manual provided four ways to define a “motorized bicycle,” which included those with “an electric motor that is capable of propelling the bicycle in excess of 15 miles per hour through the use of a throttle with a maximum motor-powered speed of no more than 28 miles per hour.”

But the definition on the MVC’s e-bike website didn’t include that sentence, which caused confusion for e-bike owners such as Stephen Dunn.

Dunn, a fireman from Elizabeth better known by his Instagram account “thebikingfireman,” has an e-bike with pedals and a throttle that goes up to 20 miles per hour, which helps him haul heavy gear to various firehouses and shuttle his kids to Little League practice.

When he searched MVC’s website for information to register his e-bike, he was dumbfounded because it seemed like his e-bike would be considered a motorcycle — a whole other vehicle class with even stricter regulations.

Now, because of the confusion, the extra costs to register and insure, and the time it will take to go to the MVC, he’s considering giving up his e-bike.

“Our lawmakers and decision-makers need to fully understand all the consequences of these law changes and I think it has a lot more negative consequences than positive outcomes than they envisioned,” Dunn said. “A lot of us feel ignored and not listened to because we all want the same thing — we want safer streets.”

MVC was made aware of the conflict by NorthJersey.com on July 6 and by July 8 the website was updated.

Dunn is not the only one considering pumping the brakes on e-bikes.

Connor, Jesse’s mother and e-bike shop owner, said she has customers trying to return e-bikes because of the new law, and others are saying it’s not worth the hassle.

“I can tell you just from observation that we are not selling as much as we used to because of the law,” Connor said.

As a result, she downsized her shop by eliminating their e-bike rental business and reduced their leased space by 1,500 square feet to cut rent. The extra administrative work to comply with the new law has forced Connor to expand the hours and pay of a part-time assistant and spend extra time explaining the new law to customers.

“It has unfairly burdened us because now our time is spent getting people the paperwork that they need,” Connor said. “If our time talking to somebody doesn’t result in a sale, that’s an expense for us.”

A ‘law of unintended consequences’

Even some who stand to make money from the new law say it’s flawed.

Denis Voitenko and Dave Williams are avid cyclists and co-founders of Velosurance, a bicycle insurance company based in Colorado that was created to provide coverage for commuters or recreational cyclists who rely on bikes almost every day.

The business partners said the law had good intentions to create an age limit and curb reckless cycling on high-speed e-bikes — or e-motos, which are like dirt bikes meant for off-roading, or electric motorcycles — that can easily cruise into dangerous speeds well over 30 miles per hour.

But Voitenko and Williams suspect that’s not what the law will achieve.

“This law is a perfect example of the law of unintended consequences,” William said. “It was designed to stop the crazy kids from riding high-speed electric motorcycles and it sucked every person who owns an e-bike into the law.”

Voitenko said they are getting around 100 inquiries a day from people in New Jersey looking to buy e-bike insurance to comply with the law, but most aren’t actually buying it. The policy costs about $100 annually.

“What’s happening in New Jersey, these are not our normal clients, these are the people who have been burdened by the government to do something that they should have never had to do,” Voitenko said.

Michael Epstein, a Rochelle Park-based personal injury lawyer, said the minimum insurance requirement doesn’t go far enough to protect the e-bike rider. The policy minimums provided by the state Department of Banking and Insurance only dictate coverage for other people or property that could be damaged in a crash involving an e-bike.

“There’s a hole in this law for the drivers of these bikes who think that they’re covered or aren’t thinking about whether they’re injured by someone else,” Epstein said. “The reason this was first passed to begin with was because of the death and injury of the people on the bike.”

NYU Langone Health researchers found that at one New York City hospital a third of the 914 patients treated for injuries linked to pedal-powered and electric mobility devices suffered a traumatic brain injury in the last five years, according to a report published earlier this year.

In New Jersey, a number of children and adults riding e-bikes have died or suffered serious injuries.

Vehicles that can go over 28 mph

The other hole in the law is it does little to restrict the sale of e-motos or vehicles being disguised as e-bikes that are actually in the motorcycle class.

Voitenko said they’re denying at least 70 insurance applications a day from people trying to insure bikes that go over 28 miles per hour. They’ve blacklisted more than 900 models — “a clear indication of an epidemic that needs to be addressed,” he said.

New Jersey’s new law bans the sale of “electric motorized bicycles,” which are now defined as two-wheeled vehicles that can travel over 28 miles per hour, on the Internet for one year. It’s unclear how that part of the law is being enforced, and who would do the enforcement.

Scutari and Coughlin’s offices did not respond to questions about that.

In California, state lawmakers banned the sale of e-bikes with throttles that travel over 20 miles per hour and those that can surpass 28 miles per hour with pedal assistance, prompting Amazon and other retailers to curtail sales of such bikes in the state.

California also requires every e-bike sold in the state to have a permanent label that discloses its classification, its top assisted speed and the wattage of its motor.

“When it comes to consumer protection and safety, we think (California’s) whole classification was better than anything else out there,” Voitenko said.