Governor Murphy signed Senator Scutari’s e-bike bill, S4834, on January 19. This means that a year after the law takes effect, people in New Jersey will be required to wear a DOT-approved motorcycle helmet and acquire a driver’s license or permit, insurance for their e-bike, and register their e-bike in New Jersey to use any e-bike, including a low-speed "Type 1" e-bike that has no throttle and can go up to 20 miles per hour. Those who do not comply with the law can be fined $50. 

Bike JC has been clear in our opposition to this bill since becoming aware of it. Instead of working harder to create safe infrastructure for people on bikes to separate them from both pedestrians and cars, this law creates a punitive regulatory system, completely out of step with the three-tier framework used nationally, that works to make it more difficult, expensive, and time-consuming for people to use low-speed e-bikes in New Jersey. This law is the latest episode in a long history of car-oriented lawmakers in the United States restricting non-car modes of transportation and baking car-dependency into American life under the guise of safety. 

A better way to prevent crashes involving people on e-bikes would be to:

• Invest in rapidly building out more protected bicycle infrastructure

• Provide funding for bicycle education programs. This can be done through a funded bicycle education requirement to be taught in schools, modeled after what has been done in Minnesota since 2023. 

• Provide funds to implement and enforce existing laws and regulations, such as those prohibiting people from riding a bike on the sidewalk, prohibiting parking cars in bicycle lanes, or restricting the use of electric motorcycles (also known as e-motos).

This law is a disappointing step backward for sustainable transportation in New Jersey. It will create unnecessary barriers for residents seeking a cleaner, more affordable alternative to car travel. In 8 years, Phil Murphy starved transit and funneled billions of dollars to highway widenings, while thousands of people were killed and tens of thousands seriously injured on NJ roads. On his last day in office, he signed the most restrictive ebike bill in the United States. Governor Murphy’s legacy will be as a singular villain in the story of the ongoing national and global climate and transportation crises. Bike JC will fight to repeal and replace this law, which will be a stain on the records of the Assembly and Senate members who voted for it, especially Senate President Nick Scutari, who rammed this through during lame duck despite personal conflicts of interest and obvious flaws with the bill’s language.

See you in Trenton.