New Jersey’s new law mandating that all electric bike riders must hold a licence, registration and insurance, regardless of classification, is ridiculous – and sets a dangerous precedent for riders worldwide.
The legislation lumps all ebikes into a single category, grouping conventional, safe and regulated pedal-assist bikes with dangerous, unlicensed and unrestricted electric bikes – or so-called ‘e-motos’.
Although the circumstances that inspired the law are tragic, it appears to be a largely knee-jerk reaction to the small but highly visible problem that unregulated bikes pose, and it is the culmination of years of poorly researched, negative press about ebikes.
Globally, mainstream coverage has routinely conflated pedal-assist bikes with high-powered, modified or illegal machines.
Against a backdrop of broader – and not always unfounded – concerns about battery safety, this has done real harm to a category that has the power to make cities better places to live, people happier and healthier, and help nations meet their climate goals.
There’s no question New Jersey’s new law is uniquely restrictive (and according to many commentators, likely to be impossible to enforce). But more worrying is the precedent it sets, and what impact it could have on cycling uptake.
Moral panic
As ever, cyclists remain a convenient political target. It’s easy to dismiss daft suggestions such as mandatory bells, but proposals to make helmets or licences compulsory for all riders routinely attract alarmingly high levels of public support.
Here in the UK, recent negative mainstream coverage of cycling has largely focused on antisocial ebike riding – again, generally lumping in illegal or modified electric-powered bikes with legal bikes.
More often than not, this is linked with delivery riders – and the reporting is rarely solely about whether or not bikes are compliant with UK law.
Dominated by the likes of Uber and Deliveroo, as noted in a June 2025 study, these gig-economy platform employers rely disproportionately on “migrants and racially minoritised individuals disproportionately excluded from traditional employment channels”.
Many of these riders operate in conditions of deep insecurity, shaped by surveillance and exploitation. Yet, it is this workforce – and their visibility on electric bikes in urban centres – that has become an easy target for public concern and media moral panic.
As with anything in life, there will be delivery riders – regardless of their background – who behave badly on our roads.
But what should really be a conversation about infrastructure, proportional enforcement, regulation and, crucially, corporate responsibility often has a coded – or overt – subtext about migration.
I’ll stress that I’m conflating two issues separated by an ocean and very different political landscapes.
Although reporting on New Jersey’s laws has said advocacy groups raised concerns that the law would disproportionately impact migrant workers, I’m not familiar enough with the politics of the state to say whether there is a direct link between migration and its new legislation.
However, given how the media generally treats electric bike riders in the UK, it is not a stretch to imagine those looking to capitalise on the political talking point of the day using New Jersey's extreme approach as a model to restrict ebike use under the dubious guise of improving safety.
What can we do?
More broadly, it’s absolutely crucial that advocacy bodies such as E-Bike Positive continue their laudable work dispelling myths about the dangers of ebikes.
Likewise, while sites such as BikeRadar have a duty to report on dangerous or misleading technology, we also have a responsibility to celebrate the many proven positives ebikes bring.
Infrastructure improvements are vital, of course. But advocacy groups and political leaders must also be louder in their support of ebikes as a genuinely transformative mode of transport – if only to counter the wave of inaccurate, unhelpful and misleading headlines.
If we don’t, and give in to the negative narrative surrounding ebikes, we could soon find ourselves facing something close to New Jersey’s outrageous new policies – and that would be a setback for cyclists everywhere.
