E-bike safety starts with better laws

When Suffolk County officials announced the enforcement of new laws regulating e-bikes, safety advocates cheered, and rightly so. The laws will do much to make e-bike riders — especially children — safer.

But the measures brought up another problem — the overlapping rules regulating e-bikes across municipalities that flummox law-abiding e-bike enthusiasts.

In Suffolk, all e-bike riders must wear a helmet, regardless of age, and anyone under 16 isn't legally allowed to operate an e-bike. Municipalities have implemented their own rules, such as Babylon Town at its beaches and parks.

However, in Nassau, police announced recently on social media that Class 2 and Class 3 e-bikes and e-scooters were banned outright on "any Nassau County roadway or property." That will certainly lead to court challenges since the state has jurisdiction over vehicle and traffic laws, with some exceptions.

What law should a responsible e-bike rider follow?

The intent of the new regulations is better safety for riders and others, which is laudable, but it's understandable that e-bike riders wonder if they will be ticketed and have their e-bike confiscated depending on where they are riding at any given moment.

This needs to get straightened out. The danger posed by riding an e-bike is very real. In March, Stony Brook Children's Hospital officials said trauma admissions for e-bike and e-scooter injuries had skyrocketed by more than 900% between 2023 and 2025.

Certainly, lawmakers have an obligation to adopt common sense measures to improve safety, but what we have now is a hodgepodge — layers of government acting independently of each other rather than cooperating to find the best solution.

Last week, Nassau Democratic legislators proposed updating county legislation about e-bikes. The proposal would clarify county laws to "reduce confusion for riders, retailers, and law enforcement" so people can use e-bikes and e-scooters to connect to train stations, get to work or go shopping. Nassau's announcement in early March that all e-bikes and e-scooters with a throttle were banned caused confusion, some say, since those devices are legal, with restrictions, in other municipalities, and the county was basing its ban on a 20-year-old law.

Daniel Flanzig, an attorney who has trained Suffolk County law enforcement on e-bike laws, said that elected officials must write better laws, train code and law enforcement, and educate kids and parents.

"We need buy-in from the parents, buy-in from schools and we need to have point-of-sale control and education," Flanzig told the editorial board. "We do it for drugs and social media warnings."

At a news conference last week, Suffolk Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina, in explaining the new laws and fines, said bluntly: "We care about your children in Suffolk County. We care about their safety."

State, county and local municipality leaders need to cut through the tangle of regulatory overlap to make laws that parents and kids will follow. That will make e-bikes safer on Long Island.