A bill to regulate and encourage the usage of electrical bicycles in Massachusetts was referred to the State Senate Ways and Means Committee on Monday.
State Representative Steven Owens stated “An Act Relative to Electric Bicycles” — the title of the bill — will outline three new lessons of e-bikes.
“Every e-bike is classified as a motorized bicycle,” he stated. “So that includes the pedal assist bikes, which only run the motor while you’re pedaling at a top speed of 20 [miles per hour], you can’t go faster than that.”
Pedal help bikes could be thought of the primary class of e-bikes. The second class covers e-bikes that present help to riders even when the rider is just not pedaling, however nonetheless travels solely up to 20 mph. The ultimate class contains e-bikes that solely present help to riders when they’re pedaling however permits the rider to attain up to 28 mph.
Owens — a sponsor of the House model of the bill — stated the aim of the laws was to outline “what is a bike and what’s not” so lawmakers can begin paving the way in which to embody extra e-bikes into the town and cut back visitors air pollution.
“It’s important for us, if we’re going to meet our climate goals, to give people the option to use cleaner transportation,” Owens stated. “And an e-bike is clean, it’s green, it is an order of magnitude cheaper than an electric car and also takes up less space in traffic.”
Owens described the probabilities e-bikes provide for commuters and companies alike.
“I really think it’s a great solution for things like small deliveries, it’s a great solution for commuting, expanding the range of what’s commutable for cyclists,” Owens stated. “I’m really hopeful that we will be able to put this framework into law so we can have these conversations.”
Eliza Parad — the director of organizing and operations at Boston Cyclists Union who advocated for the bill — stated e-bikes have turn into extra standard over the pandemic.
“A lot of people who were taking public transit, commuter rail, longer seven-plus mile commutes switched to using e-bikes,” Parad stated.
Another bill — “An Act Relative to Electric Bicycle Rebates” — may also present rebates of up to $750 for residents to buy e-bikes.
However, in accordance to Owens, one subject is that, since all e-bikes are at present categorized as motorized bicycles and thus will not be allowed on bike paths and are topic to licensing necessities from the Registry of Motor Vehicles, this will create main hurdles for e-bike customers.
Parad stated it’s “legally unclear” the place e-bikes are at present allowed.
“[E-bike users] are currently biking where bicycles already are, so bike lanes and bike paths, but there’s definitely some confusion there,” Parad stated.
Tiffany Cogell — a co-organizer for Ride for Black Lives Boston — stated whereas she appears to be like ahead to the bill being handed, she wished legislators might embody language that might permit for undocumented riders and riders with disabilities.
“Just like you can go out and buy a regular bike and you don’t have to worry about being regulated, I believe that should be the case with e-bikes as well,” Cogell stated.
Owens stated pedestrians’ considerations about sharing paths with e-bikes can’t be addressed till there’s a authorized definition of what an e-bike is.
“Things like speed limits on these paths, or deciding that we want the simple pedal-assist bikes and the slower e-bikes but not the larger cargo bikes, these are conversations that we can have, but we can’t even begin to make those decisions until the classification of e-bikes is enshrined in law,” Owens stated.
Parad stated e-bikes will probably be extra accessible if Boston’s Bluebikes fleet is expanded to embody them.
“Bluebikes, which is the operator of the Greater Boston bike share program, can’t add electric bicycles into their fleet, like New York City, New Orleans and many other cities have in their bike shares, which get a lot more people riding bikes,” Parad stated.
Owens stated 46 different states have related classifications within the legislation and referred to as Massachusetts “way behind” on e-bikes.
“The most important thing about this legislation is that it gets us into the 21st century of cycling,” Owens stated.