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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMarc Lamber\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSubmitted photo\/Lamber Goodnow\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
By Marc Lamber | Paradise Valley<\/p>\n
OPINION \u2014 Electric bikes and scooters were once fringe transportation options. In Arizona\u2019s urban cores, they are now everyday fixtures and increasingly a source of serious safety concern.<\/p>\n
Cities across Arizona are responding the only way they can, by writing their own rules. Tempe is the latest to do so. That should be the moment Arizona steps in.<\/p>\n
The problem starts with state law.<\/p>\n
According to Arizona Revised Statutes (A.R.S) \u00a7 28-819, electric bicycles and electric standup scooters are regulated together and treated largely like traditional bicycles. Riders need no license, registration or insurance. These devices may operate on streets and in bike lanes by default, and on bike paths unless a local authority restricts them.<\/p>\n
But the statute leaves nearly every meaningful safety\u00a0decision, including\u00a0age limits, helmet requirements, sidewalk rules, penalties and enforcement,\u00a0to cities. That structure may have worked when micromobility was rare. Today, it shifts responsibility to cities without giving them a common baseline, ensuring inconsistent rules, uneven enforcement and confusion for riders, parents and police.<\/p>\n
Tempe illustrates the consequences of that gap. From 2021 through 2024, the city recorded 116 serious injury or fatal collisions involving pedestrians or bicycle units<\/a>, including \u201cmicro mobility devices. In two-thirds of those cases, the rider was the primary cause of the accident.\u00a0More than 1,100 EMS responses tied to e-scooters<\/a> have been reported over four years, including more than 300 injuries and numerous cases involving loss of consciousness.<\/p>\n Faced with those numbers, and operating under a code that relies largely on general bicycle and traffic rules, Tempe has convened a City Council subcommittee to recommend age limits, speed restrictions, helmet requirements and clearer enforcement. In effect, the city is rebuilding a safety framework that state law never required.<\/p>\n Tempe is not alone. Glendale recently adopted one of the state\u2019s most comprehensive ordinances<\/a>, with age thresholds by device type, helmet requirements for minors, mandatory lighting, and fines starting at $50 and escalating to $500 for repeat violations, enforced by city police.\u00a0Scottsdale\u00a0has banned riders under 16 from operating faster, Class 3 e-bikes on city property. Phoenix prohibits e-bike riding on sidewalks and enforces violations as civil traffic offenses.<\/p>\n Each city is responding rationally. The problem is that they are responding alone.<\/p>\n A teenager riding legally in Tempe may be cited with a violation minutes later in\u00a0Scottsdale. Parents trying to set clear rules for their children\u00a0and protect their family\u2019s financial assets must \u00a0currently\u00a0decipher\u00a0multiple municipal codes. Police officers are asked to enforce different standards depending on city boundaries. When safety rules change block by block, compliance drops, and enforcement becomes harder, not easier.<\/p>\n Lawmakers have acknowledged growing concern with the introduction of\u00a0Senate Bill 1008\u00a0<\/a>this session, which would impose speed limits on shared-use paths. But SB 1008 is not a solution. It layers a narrow rule onto an outdated statute and leaves the underlying problem untouched.<\/p>\n SB 1008 does not clarify where e-bikes and scooters should operate, who should be allowed to ride them, what safety equipment should be required, or how violations should be enforced statewide. It preserves the underlying outdated that has produced today\u2019s regulatory patchwork.<\/p>\n \n Arizona does not need another patch. It needs to rewrite A.R.S. \u00a7 28-819. The statute should establish clear, statewide safety rules, including minimum age requirements by device class, helmet standards for minors, default rules for where e-bikes and scooters may operate, and consistent enforcement and penalties. Cities should retain the ability to go further, but public safety should not hinge on which side of a city limit someone happens to be riding on.<\/p>\n Given how much these vehicles have permeated our culture and the risks they pose, Arizona should also consider requiring that Class 3 e-bikes, which can reach 28 mph, be classified as motor vehicles within A.R.S. \u00a7 28-819.\u00a0If we are going to allow vehicles capable of nearly 30 mph to share lanes with cars, we must treat them with the seriousness they demand.<\/p>\n Reclassification would\u00a0involve registration and licensing. Crucially, it would require\u00a0riders\u00a0to\u00a0carry liability\u00a0insurance, just like any other\u00a0motorist\u00a0on the road. When a high-speed collision happens, victims should not be left without recourse. It would\u00a0ensure\u00a0manufacturer compliance with federal and state safety standards.<\/p>\n E-bikes and scooters are here to stay. The injuries are already happening. Cities are acting because they feel they must. It\u2019s time our state\u2019s motor vehicle laws caught up with reality.<\/p>\n Marc Lamber is a trial attorney and personal injury group chair who has practiced law in Arizona for more than three decades. He lives in Paradise Valley. Please submit comments at\u00a0yourvalley.net\/letters<\/a> or email them to AzOpinions@iniusa.org.\u00a0We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our\u00a0Civility Guidelines<\/a>.<\/p>\n \n\t\tKeywords<\/p>\n \t\t\t\tArizona,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t electric bikes,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t e-bikes,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t scooters,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t urban cores,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t (A.R.S) \u00a7 28-819,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t enforcement,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t Senate Bill 1008,\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t SB 1008\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marc Lamber Submitted photo\/Lamber Goodnow By Marc Lamber | Paradise Valley OPINION \u2014 Electric bikes and scooters were…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":576287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5131],"tags":[250143,5229,5643,1587,29652,250141,5375,1589,250144,59928,113561,67,586,132,5230,250142,68,2969],"class_list":["post-576286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-phoenix","tag-a-r-s--28-819","tag-america","tag-arizona","tag-az","tag-e-bikes","tag-electric-bikes","tag-enforcement","tag-phoenix","tag-sb-1008","tag-scooters","tag-senate-bill-1008","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-urban-cores","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116037798140655411","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}