{"id":135472,"date":"2026-01-28T21:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T21:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/135472\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T21:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T21:34:10","slug":"senate-bill-upping-e-bike-regulations-rolls-through-second-committee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/135472\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate bill upping e-bike regulations rolls through second committee"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8216;Parents worry when they\u2019re walking with their young children. Right now, the rules haven\u2019t caught up.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A Senate committee unanimously approved Wednesday to a bill that would increase regulations on electronic bicycles and scooters.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flsenate.gov\/Committees\/Show\/ATD?pref=full\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Senate Appropriations Committee on Transportation, Tourism and Economic Development<\/a> reviewed the bill (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.flsenate.gov\/Session\/Bill\/2026\/382\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">SB 382<\/a>) while about a dozen representatives from local governments, law enforcement offices and school boards urged legislators to sharpen rules governing the vehicles, which have been involved in an increasing number of accidents, some of them fatal.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.coralsprings.gov\/Government\/City-Commission\/City-Commission-3\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Nancy Bowen<\/a>, Vice Mayor of Coral Springs, said residents complain every day as the devices are visible throughout the community. And more are entering pedestrian paths.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cParents worry when they\u2019re walking with their young children,\u201d Bowen said. \u201cRight now, the rules haven\u2019t caught up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The bill calls for increased regulation and data collection on the vehicles. It would establish an \u201celectric bicycle task force.\u201d The panel would collect data on e-bike and e-scooter accidents, provide recommendations on enforcement, and submit a report in the Fall to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flhsmv.gov\/\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tgh.org\/\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/tgh_42212_01_PoliticsSponsor_Banner_728x90_L4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"728\" height=\"90\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-325032\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Tavares Republican Sen. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flsenate.gov\/Senators\/S13\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Keith Truenow<\/a> is sponsoring the bill and said it includes stipulations calling for e-bikers to have an audible warning alert that needs to be sounded and they need to slow to 10 mph when approaching pedestrians.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Even Truenow acknowledged that\u2019s tough to enforce and admitted final regulations won\u2019t be formulated until the task force compiles more data from around the Sunshine State.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThere\u2019s an education portion of this that will go into place,\u201d Truenow said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The bill now heads to the Senate Fiscal Policy Committee, its final stop on the way to the Senate floor.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">There\u2019s an identical bill (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.flhouse.gov\/Sections\/Bills\/billsdetail.aspx?BillId=82769\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">HB 243<\/a>) co-sponsored by Republican Reps. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flhouse.gov\/Sections\/Representatives\/custom\/details.aspx?MemberId=4923&amp;LegislativeTermId=91\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Yvette Benarroch<\/a> of Naples and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flhouse.gov\/Sections\/Representatives\/custom\/details.aspx?MemberId=4929&amp;LegislativeTermId=91\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Omar Blanco<\/a> of Miami making its way through the House.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/consumerenergyalliance.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external noreferrer nofollow\" data-wpel-link=\"external\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-774779 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/energyalliance728x90.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"728\" height=\"90\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#8216;Parents worry when they\u2019re walking with their young children. Right now, the rules haven\u2019t caught up.&#8217; A Senate&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4555,1171,66342,66343,28,36456,30,29,62807,62809,66344,66345,62810,66346,66347,4006],"class_list":["post-135472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-coral-springs","tag-e-bikes","tag-e-scooters","tag-electronic-bicycles","tag-florida","tag-florida-department-of-highway-safety-and-motor-vehicles","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-hb-243","tag-keith-truenow","tag-nancy-bowen","tag-omar-blanco","tag-sb-382","tag-senate-appropriations-committee-on-transportation","tag-tourism-and-economic-development","tag-yvette-benarroch"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}