GILBERT, Ariz. — If you've spent any amount of time in Gilbert, you've probably seen people zipping around on electric bikes.
While they're a great way to get outside and take a ride, 11 injury calls in just a few months have prompted the Gilbert Police Department to tell e-bike riders to pump the brakes a bit.
Gilbert police traffic officer Scott Carner and his team are working to educate the community about all of the laws, to avoid more injuries. One of the issues, Carner said, is an e-bike's potential high rate of speed.
“It’s not like falling off of a bicycle and you skin your knee," Carner said. "You’re falling off and you’re usually getting some sort of serious trauma, whether it’s a broken bone or a head trauma. And these have lifelong impacts. In my time in the motor unit my colleagues and I have responded to several of these where kids end up in the hospital for a prolonged period of time.”
From March to May of 2024, Gilbert PD said they responded to 11 injury calls involving e-bikes. Six of those involved juveniles. One incident involved a 17-year-old rider of an electric motor bike who was hurt in a single vehicle crash. Police said the 17-year-old was cited for failure to have a class “M” designation on their driver’s license and for the e-bike not being insured.
Another e-bike incident, police said a 15-year-old rider of an electric bike crashed with a vehicle turning out of a neighborhood. That person was cited for failure to ride on the right side of the road. And a third incident, a 14-year-old rider of an electric bike was seriously hurt and hospitalized after a crash with a car. That case is under investigation. One e-bike rider was even put in a coma recently after being hurt on their bike, Gilbert police said.
In response to e-bikes growing in popularity, the department is sharing laws around electric bicycles on their website and out in the community. The e-bike laws and definitions can be complex and it’s important to do your research before you buy or use one.
There are certain requirements for electric bikes, like they cannot exceed 20 or 28 miles per hour depending on class of the e-bike. If the device does not comply with e-bike definitions under Arizona law, it could be classified as a motorcycle or motor-driven cycle. And in those cases, insurance, an Arizona “M” class driver’s license and MVD registration plus helmet requirements for under-18 riders can all come into play.
Carner has worked in the police traffic unit for a while now. He said his teams see too many people ride modified electric bikes faster than 30 miles per hour within neighborhoods and parks. And that can be dangerous for not only the rider, but people who are enjoying time outside.
“We wouldn’t drive a car through a park, we wouldn’t drive a car on the sidewalk, but that’s exactly what’s happening with a lot of these electric bikes," Carner said. "People are taking these electric motorcycles or bicycles that don’t fit the definition of an e-bike. They look like it but they’re not. So the issue we’re seeing is a lot of people riding them. Not adhering to traffic laws. Not adhering to pedestrian laws. It gives them the freedom and that’s when we see injuries occur.”
Failure to follow e-bike laws in Arizona can mean a citation from police. So Carner hopes to stop that, and the injuries, before it happens.
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