New Jersey residents who own an e-bike can now start registering them, Eyewitness News ABC7NY reported. The registration is required under a new safety law that goes into effect on July 19, opening a formal process for the increasingly popular electric bikes that have spread across the state's streets and sidewalks.
Registration is only one piece of the new rules. The measure ushers in a broader set of requirements aimed at bringing order to how e-bikes are ridden, after years in which the bikes largely operated without clear regulation.
One of the central changes sets a minimum age for riders. Under the law, anyone riding an e-bike must be at least 15 years old, putting an age floor on who can legally take one out on the road.
The law also targets basic rider protection. It requires riders to wear a helmet, a standard safety step that had not been uniformly enforced for e-bike users before the new rules took shape.
Beyond age and helmets, the measure brings e-bikes closer to the rules that govern other vehicles. Riders must have either an e-bike license or a valid driver's license and insurance, tying the bikes into a system of licensing and coverage.
Officials point to a series of alarming incidents as the reason for the crackdown. According to the report, a police cruiser dash cam captured a juvenile speeding down the street and effectively making his own rules of the road, while in Montvale a rider crashed into a car, went airborne and landed on the roof of the vehicle.
For the authorities behind the law, the goal is straightforward. Police departments and lawmakers say the new regulations are all about safety, betting that registration, age limits, helmets and licensing will cut down on the kind of crashes that prompted the changes in the first place.