While some states are incentivizing electric bike usage for environmental, among other reasons, New Jersey is under fire for legislation opponents say is a major setback and not just in the “green” arena.
Under Senate Bill 2292 and its companion Assembly Bill 3359, operators of low-speed e-bikes or e-scooters would be required to register with the New Jersey Division of Motor Vehicles and obtain insurance, including liability and personal injury protection.
The bill, sponsored by Senate President Nicholas Scutari (D-Linden) and Vin Gopal (D-Long Branch), was introduced in January. After a favorable report from the NJ Senate Transportation Committee, it advanced to the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee on Feb. 15 but has not been adopted. Its Assembly companion was introduced in January by Democrats Reginald Atkins, Linda Carter and Shanique Speight and also sits in committee, as per LegiScan.
One of more than 40 local, state and national organizations, as well as store owners, battling the bill is the New Jersey Bike & Walk Coalition, a statewide advocacy group for bicyclists and pedestrians, whose executive director, Debra Kagan, testified before the Transportation Committee about what just might be a major setback for e-bikes and their green benefits.
Kagan told Flexible Work News the bill likely was sparked by a state Supreme Court decision regarding a scooter accident. According to Insurance Journal on May 15, the Supreme Court, as well as lower courts, affirmed that the operator of a Segway scooter who was hit by a car in 2021 could not claim personal injury protection (PIP) benefits under New Jersey’s no-fault insurance.
While insuring e-scooters and e-bikes may seem like a solution, Kagan says it carries many “unintended consequences” by adding “a whole other layer to having an e-bike,” she said. That other layer is the insurance requirement for low-speed e-bikes, which she said, go no faster than 20 miles an hour. Kagan objected that no such insurance exists today for low-speed e-bikes, so there would be no way to comply. According to a letter from this coalition of protesters, the one insurance that may exist is modeled after motorcycles and carries a cost of hundreds of dollars annually.
In her Senate testimony, Kagan said, “To meet our state goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, eliminating road fatalities and providing equitable transportation, we need to provide mobility options that reduce our dependence on cars. While numerous other states are finding ways to expand e-bike use with rebates, this bill will negatively impact micro mobility by adding fees and complicated processes for registration.”
As New Jersey essentially makes it less attractive for people to ride e-bikes, five states—Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, Vermont and Washington— according to Kagan, are promoting e-bikes with the adoption of rebates and tax-credit initiatives.
As an example of how these initiatives can work, Colorado has incentivized e-bikes with a voucher program that helps middle-and low-income people afford e-bikes, while boosting the environment, Colorado Public Radio reported in October 2023. The initial goal was to help 7,000 residents buy e-bikes with $6.6 million available in air quality legislation funding, which eventually ran dry due to demand. Launched in August 2023 by the Colorado Energy Office, the program was sparked by success in Denver, CPR said.
Without the kind of restrictions New Jersey is contemplating, e-bike sales have risen 35-40% over the last two to three years, according to the owners of a Colorado Springs bike shop, KOAA News5 reported in February. “I believe there’s a niche bike for pretty much any and everything you want to do from gravel ebikes, to a commuter style ebike, to the full on mountain ebike,” Patrick Trujillo with Ted’s Bicycle told KOAA.
Like Colorado, Kagan and her group are also concerned about the impact on environmental initiatives if New Jersey discourages e-bike usage with arduous regulations.
“To lower the greenhouse gas emissions, we need to provide mobility options that are not car-based. Even with electrical vehicles we will still need to provide other non-car-based options for people,” she said.
This comes at a time when New Jersey is striving to meet its carbon-neutral goals of 50% by 2030 and 100% by 2050, according to nj.gov.
By adding more vehicle traffic to already congested roadways, she said, “It hurts our whole process of trying to create safer and more optimal mobility options. It won’t help us reduce our greenhouse gases.”
On the matter of safety, she points to New Jersey’s goal of achieving zero fatalities, as reflected in a 2020 Strategic Highway Safety Plan to curb fatalities and serious injuries by 14% over five years. Despite this goal, last year saw an almost 20% spike in road-associated deaths, Kagan said.
While sharing the concern for roadway safety, Kagan stressed that this legislation is “not a safety bill; insurance and registration are not safety features and they’re not going to make it safer to ride an e-bike.”
Though the goal should be increased mobility options, she said this legislation will discourage the use of e-bikes, which are popular for commuting to work and school as well as delivery jobs. The most vulnerable communities, because of finances, race and lack of citizenship, are likely to suffer most, she said, anticipating a “burden on people who are already struggling to make ends meet” while taking a financial toll on bike-sharing communities, like Jersey City.
To stop the Senate and Assembly bills from progressing, groups like Kagan’s are reaching out to legislators to shine a light on the various unintended consequences. A letter in opposition signed by some 40 national, state and local groups as well as bicycle shops has declared the bill contrary to New Jersey’s own policy goals on many fronts.
The April 15 letter states, “Rather than further burdening vulnerable road users, the state should instead focus its resources on proven strategies for reducing fatal and serious injury crashes on our streets, such as infrastructure improvements for people walking, biking and taking public transit.”
