Bipartisan Safe Speeds bill would address e-moto concerns
It's a long way yet from law, but a bipartisan bill introduced in the US House of Representatives focuses on creating federal standards for lightweight electric vehicles, with an eye to creating a regulatory framework for e-bikes and higher-power vehicles like e-mopeds and e-motos. The bill is prompted by rising safety concerns around the use of unregulated e-motos on public rights-of-way, including bike lanes and paths.
Caley Fretz
The Safe SPEEDS act has four sponsors: California Democrats Dave Min, the lead sponsor, and Jared Huffman, as well as Republicans Brian Fitzpatrick (PA) and Mike Lawler (NY). The bill would direct the US Consumer Product Safety Commission to analyze data about crash incidents involving light electric vehicles, as a step toward creating different classifications and labeling requirements. The bill would also urge the CPSC to formally adopt PeopleforBikes' three-class definitions for e-bikes. That would prevent statistical information on crashes from lumping low-speed Class 1 e-bikes, for instance, in with unregulated, high-power e-motos.
The bill has been referred to the Energy and Commerce Committee for next steps.
