Those E-Bikes Around Westland Could Soon Come With New Rules
If you've driven through a Westland neighborhood lately, you've seen them.
Kids on electric bikes cruising down sidewalks and neighborhood streets. Some look like regular bikes. Others look more like small motorcycles.
And some of them are fast.
Now Michigan lawmakers are looking at putting new rules on young riders.
One bill would require anyone under 18 to have a special license to ride certain faster e-bikes on the road unless they already have a driver's license. The special license would start at age 15.
Another bill would prohibit kids under 14 from riding e-bikes on public roads, sidewalks or trails.
Why the sudden attention?
Earlier this month, two 13-year-old boys were critically injured when the electric bike they were riding was struck by a pickup while crossing Telegraph Road in Bloomfield Township. Bloomfield Township has since temporarily banned riders under 16 from operating e-bikes and scooters on sidewalks and township property.
There's something parents should know too.
Not everything that looks like an e-bike is legally an e-bike.
Michigan's fastest legal class of e-bike can assist a rider up to 28 mph and motors are limited to 750 watts. Some of the more powerful electric bikes being sold today exceed those limits and can fall under different motor vehicle rules.
Neither of the proposed state laws has passed yet.
But with more of these bikes showing up around Westland, it's probably worth checking the one sitting in your garage.
How fast does your kid's e-bike actually go?
