The fast-growing popularity of electric scooters, and a corresponding spike in injuries and deaths, has prompted more than half of states and Washington, D.C., to pass rules of the road for the zippy two-wheelers.
The regulatory push has transpired over the past seven years, with e-scooter sharing companies arriving in several cities in 2018. Eighteen laws were enacted in 2019 and eight have been passed since, according to a new report by the National Conference of State Legislatures. Five other states previously had laws on the books.
“Legislators are seeing people using them, and they’re also recognizing that they’re very handy mobility tools,” said Douglas Shinkle, who co-authored the NCSL report. “They want them in their states, but they want them to be safe.”
There were 65 million shared e-scooter rides in 2023, rivaling the use of shared bikes. Personal e-scooters are also on the rise, including as kids use them to commute to school.
The trend has led to injuries and even deaths. E-scooters were linked to more than 360,000 emergency room visits and 111 fatalities between 2017 and 2022. In Sacramento, Calif., a college student and a medical resident were killed in recent weeks in two separate scooter crashes with cars.
South Carolina Rep. Brandon Guffey (R) can speak to the dangers from personal experience. While attending the NCSL’s legislative summit in Louisville in August, he crashed on an e-scooter.
“I flipped so hard going over that I landed on the back of my head,” said Guffey, who was not wearing a helmet. He sustained a concussion and other injuries.
“I should have been more careful,” he said. “I just got too comfortable.”
Guffey said the accident, which he discussed on a podcast he hosts, prompted him to consider introducing legislation to require helmets for anyone under 18 and barring e-scooters on roads with a speed limit higher than 25 mph.
Five states require youth riders to wear helmets when they are operating an e-scooter, according to the NCSL report. Fifteen states set a minimum age to operate one of the devices, ranging from 8 in Utah to 18 in Arizona and Illinois, the report said. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that kids under 16 not ride e-scooters.
Other state laws include barring more than one person from riding a scooter and prohibiting the operator from having something in their hand that would prevent them from safely steering. Illinois, New York and Utah make it illegal to drive an e-scooter while intoxicated.
Most of the laws require that a scooter’s max speed is no higher than 20 mph while at least a dozen states set an operator speed limit of 15 mph. Other rules govern where scooters can be driven, including restrictions on sidewalk use and limits on riding a scooter on streets with speed limits higher than 35 mph.
The swift effort by states, and some cities, to regulate e-scooters comes as battery technology has spawned an industry of “micromobility” technologies, also known as personal electric vehicles. It includes e-bikes, Segways, electric unicycles and hoverboards.
Some of the devices can go freeway speeds, including so-called hyper scooters. E-unicycles, a single wheel with the rider perched atop, are the latest rage with an entire genre of YouTube videos depicting their use, including groups of riders swarming city streets.
State lawmakers are racing to catch up.
“We’re still way freakin’ behind,” said New York Assemblymember Clyde Vanel (D), who chairs a subcommittee on new technology.
New York is one of the states with an e-scooter law, but Vanel said the proliferation of faster, more powerful personal electric vehicles means laws are not keeping up with technology.
“Our world is changing, transportation is changing,” Vanel said. “This is something we have to address.”
Vanel also speaks from personal experience. He owns a Segway, which he rode on the Assembly floor; a folding electric-assist bicycle; and an e-unicycle with another one on order.
Vanel said his new e-unicycle, which can go 50 mph, is not contemplated by New York’s e-scooter or e-bike laws, which limit where users can ride the devices and how fast they can go.
“I don’t have to register it with the Department of Motor Vehicles, I don’t have to have a license to ride this, I didn’t have to take a class to make sure that I am able to manage myself on this thing and not kill other people or myself,” Vanel said.
Vanel, who represents a district in Queens, said he is testing different personal electric vehicles so that he has direct knowledge of the devices before he legislates on the issue.
“I want to do it responsibly,” he said. “I’m not in a rush. I don’t want to be first, I want to be right.”
Rather than regulate by type of e-device, NCSL’s Shinkle said state lawmakers might instead consider laws that factor in the weight and speed of the vehicle much like e-bikes are classified as Class 1, 2 or 3.
For heavier, faster vehicles, Shinkle said, lawmakers will have to decide whether to require licenses, registration and insurance as is required in the United Kingdom.
Despite safety concerns, micromobility advocates see great potential for these new modes of transportation to save on carbon emissions from transportation and help solve first mile and last mile challenges for transit users.
“It’s a great thing that people have options … it’s a great thing for the environment,” Vanel said. “I started out testing and now I’m a believer, I’m a personal electric vehicles guy.”