Gov. Ron DeSantis has vetoed a speed limit for electric bicycles, a measure that passed the House and Senate unanimously, calling it an “overreach.”
The bill would have capped e-bikes’ speed at 10 miles per hour within 50 feet of a pedestrian on ways shared with pedestrians.
“Do we really want to have policing of e-bikes, and are you going 10 miles [per hour] or 8 miles [per hour] or whatever and it’s just, I think, it was a little bit of an overreach,” DeSantis said during a news conference Friday about student reading performance.
The bill, SB 382, was sponsored by Sen. Keith Truenow, a Republican from Tavares. It unanimously passed both chambers of the Legislature.
“The bill establishes a standard that would certainly be difficult for a bicyclist to measure when safely operating an e-bike,” DeSantis wrote in his veto letter.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has vetoed a speed limit for electric bicycles, a measure that passed the House and Senate unanimously, calling it an “overreach.”
The bill would have capped e-bikes’ speed at 10 miles per hour within 50 feet of a pedestrian on ways shared with pedestrians.
“Do we really want to have policing of e-bikes, and are you going 10 miles [per hour] or 8 miles [per hour] or whatever and it’s just, I think, it was a little bit of an overreach,” DeSantis said during a news conference Friday about student reading performance.
The bill, SB 382, was sponsored by Sen. Keith Truenow, a Republican from Tavares. It unanimously passed both chambers of the Legislature.
“The bill establishes a standard that would certainly be difficult for a bicyclist to measure when safely operating an e-bike,” DeSantis wrote in his veto letter.
The bill would have established a task force to research safety standards for these e-bikes.
“Maybe there’s problems, but what it will lead to is more surveillance of people by law enforcement, and we don’t need that,” DeSantis said.
More specifically, the bill would have required anyone operating an e-bike on a shared roadway to yield to any pedestrian and give an audible signal before overtaking and passing that pedestrian. Violations would have resulted in nonmoving citations.
Rep. Yvette Benarroch, a Republican from Marco Island, sponsored the House version, HB 243.
“This bill was inspired by tragedy, but not just one tragedy,” Benarroch told members of the House State Affairs Committee during the legislative session. The lawmaker citied four incidents of young people in Florida who lost their lives while driving an e-bike.
E-bike injuries doubled every year from 2017 to 2022, according to a study conducted by a June 2024 report from the JAMA Network Open.
–Jay Waagmeester, Florida Phoenix
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