{"id":169512,"date":"2026-02-26T02:19:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T02:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/169512\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T02:19:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T02:19:14","slug":"senate-vote-brings-florida-one-step-closer-to-e-bike-and-e-scooter-regulations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/169512\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate vote brings Florida one step closer to e-bike and e-scooter regulations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Senate passed a bill that is a first step in Florida adding rules for electric bikes and scooters to protect pedestrians.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">With a 37-0 <a href=\"https:\/\/thefloridachannel.org\/videos\/2-25-26-senate-session\/\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">vote Wednesday<\/a>, the Senate passed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flsenate.gov\/Session\/Bill\/2026\/382\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">SB 382<\/a>, which comes amid a rise in e-bike and e-scooter crashes.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cIt\u2019s real,\u201d said bill sponsor Sen. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flsenate.gov\/Senators\/s13?pref=full\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Keith Truenow<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s happening to a lot of youth in our communities and we have to take some kind of action to figure out how we can fix or correct (it) in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">The bill sets up a task force to recommend e-bikes and electric scooters regulations that would prevent crashes and fatalities. It also forbids e-bike riders from going more than 10 mph on a sidewalk if a pedestrian is within 50 feet and would require riders to yield to pedestrians on a shared path. Violators would be punished with a noncriminal traffic infraction.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">The bill will also require local and state law enforcement officials to keep uniform crash statistics so lawmakers can know the scope of the problem.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fau.edu\/r1?utm_source=banner&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_campaign=florida_politics_feb10&amp;utm_id=fau100&amp;utm_content=728x90\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external noreferrer nofollow\" data-wpel-link=\"external\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-721283\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/FloridaAtlantic-728x90-R1-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"728\" height=\"90\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Meanwhile, the House version (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.flsenate.gov\/Session\/Bill\/2026\/243\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">HB 243)<\/a> has advanced through all of its committees and is ready for the chamber floor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">What makes assessing the scope of the problem challenging is local and state law enforcement agencies report e-crashes differently.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">Under SB 382, the Florida Highway Patrol, sheriff\u2019s offices, and municipal police departments will be required to keep uniform crash statistics when an e-bikes or e-scooter is involved. The information they would be required to document will include the time and date of the crash, the electric vehicle driver\u2019s age and whether the driver had a learner\u2019s permit or a driver\u2019s license. In addition, the class of the e-bike would be reported, if necessary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">By Oct. 15, each law enforcement agency would submit their records to the Department of\u00a0Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles which would be responsible for compiling the data and sharing it with the Governor, House Speaker and Senate President.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">Meanwhile, the \u201cMicromobility Device Safety Task Force\u201d would be led by Dave Kerner, the executive director of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flhsmv.gov\/\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Florida Department of Highway\u00a0Safety and Motor Vehicles<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/keithgross.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external noreferrer nofollow\" data-wpel-link=\"external\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-779410 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/728x90-2-scaled-e1770825250237.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"728\" height=\"90\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">Other task force members would include representatives from the Florida Sheriffs Association, the Florida League of Cities, Florida Association of Counties, a pedestrian safety advocate and a medical professor who has treated injured pedestrians and bicyclists.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cAppointments to the task force must be made within 15 days after this act becomes a law,\u201d the bill reads. \u201cThe task force shall convene no later than 30 days\u00a0after this act becomes a law. The task force shall meet at least monthly, but may meet more frequently at the call of the chair. At least one meeting of the task force must occur in each of the following regions of the state: North Florida, Central Florida, and South Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Senate passed a bill that is a first step in Florida adding rules for electric bikes and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126983,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[80700,8070,80701,28,30,3313,29,62809,62810],"class_list":{"0":"post-169512","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-david-kerner","9":"tag-electric-bikes","10":"tag-electric-scooters","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-florida-headlines","13":"tag-florida-highway-safety-and-motor-vehicles","14":"tag-florida-news","15":"tag-keith-truenow","16":"tag-sb-382"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169512","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=169512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}