Manatee Commissioners Seek Revise e-bike Rules After Injury Spike

A graphic from the Florida Bicycle Association sets out the rules of the road for e-bike riders.

By Lisa Neff

Manatee County commissioners voted 6-0 July 28 to direct the public safety department to revise a safety ordinance, citing a rise in serious injuries to children riding e-bikes, scooters and other motorized micromobility devices.

The vote came after public safety director Jodie Fiske told the board that hospitals were seeing more traumatic brain injuries and lost toes and feet among young riders, many of whom ride without proper helmets or shoes.

Commissioner Bob McCann, R-District 5, who requested the review, made the motion directing Fiske and her staff to draft the update after consulting with the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, the school board and other stakeholders.

“I’d like to make a motion that we instruct staff to bring back an ordinance as soon as practicable after input from all of the stakeholders in this, so that we can update the e-bike ordinance that we already have,” McCann said.

Commissioner Amanda Ballard, R-District 2, seconded the motion.

The county’s current pedestrian safety ordinance, adopted in July 2025 as Ordinance No. 25-35, sets classes and operating rules, including speed limits, for electric bicycles on public roads, paths, sidewalks and shared pathways in unincorporated Manatee. It also cites 2024 state crash data showing 226 bicycle crashes in the county resulting in eight deaths and 211 injuries and 163 pedestrian crashes resulting in 18 deaths and 117 injuries.

In a memo to McCann ahead of the meeting, Fiske wrote that incidents of reckless riding, harassment, vandalism and trespassing tied to e-bikes have escalated most sharply in District 5 and that riders on devices capable of traveling 10-40 miles often aren’t residents of the gated communities where MCSO deputies encounter them.

Fiske’s memo laid out recommendations, including:

• Creating a tiered fine and impound schedule for ordinance violations.
• Developing a mandatory safety course, run with code enforcement, the MCSO and local police chiefs, that riders would complete after a first offense.
• Creating a registry of e-bikes and e-scooters, with a sticker or QR code linking a device to a rider’s household contact information for use by emergency responders and established in coordination with the schools.
• Publishing a quarterly report tallying emergency medical and law enforcement calls involving e-bikes and scooters.

McCann, in turn, presented the board with five recommendations for the ordinance’s revision:

• Clear definitions and strict enforcement mechanisms regarding the illegal operation of unregulated, high-powered electric dirt bikes and modified e-bikes on public property.
• Refined language separating the definitions and rules for bike paths versus bike lanes, particularly addressing the ambiguity of riding in painted shoulders.
• Updated speed limits, yielding requirements and potential bans on Class 3 e-bikes or throttle-only bikes on specific congested sidewalks.
• Adjustments to age minimums, helmet mandates and guardian liability.
• Strategies for increasing community outreach, identifying funding for targeted MCSO enforcement and exploring registration or identification tag systems for e-bikes.

At the meeting, Fiske said the registration idea is meant for emergency response, not enforcement, to help kids. She described a recent crash in which a child struck by a car was flown to Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital and “it was hours and hours before the parents even knew.”

She said a QR code would let first responders reach a family immediately and would be limited to their access.

Fiske also told the board that e-bike-related crashes have nearly quadrupled year over year, and that while law enforcement hasn’t formally tracked e-bikes as a factor in juvenile crime, agencies across the county describe an anecdotal link between the devices and a rise in offenses among young riders.

A graphic from the Florida Bicycle Association sets out e-bike classifications.