E-Bikes and Powered Scooters

Understanding new legislation around electric bikes and scooters

Overview

At its October 21 meeting, New Albany City Council approved legislation to enhance community safety and clarify the rules of the road for e-bikes and powered scooters. These changes are designed to promote responsible use while protecting pedestrians, cyclists, and riders themselves.

View Ordinance
Several parked electric dirt bikes and a small electric scooter lined up on cobblestone and brick pavement beside a metal railing in a sunlit, tree-filled park, with a helmet on the grass nearby.

Key Updates

  • Vehicle classification: E-bikes and powered scooters are now classified as vehicles (not motor vehicles). Motor vehicles remain prohibited from shared-use paths and sidewalks.

  • Helmet requirement: Anyone under 18 must wear a helmet when riding e-bikes, powered scooters, or bicycles.

  • Rules of the road: When on roads, e-bikes and powered scooters must follow the same traffic laws as bicycles.

  • Sidewalk/shared-use paths: Motors may not be used on sidewalks. They are permitted on shared-use paths with a 10 mph speed limit unless otherwise posted. Riders must yield to pedestrians and use an audible signal before passing. Pedestrians must also stay alert for signals from passing riders.

  • Equipment: Lights and reflectors are required when riding before dawn or after dusk.

  • Penalties: Violations may result in fines, similar to other traffic offenses.

  • Class 3 e-bikes: Riders must be at least 16 years old, wear a helmet, and ride on the road. Shared-use paths are not permitted.

Two parked electric bikes — a matte-black off-road electric motorcycle on the right and a white-and-red mountain e-bike on the left — locked to metal racks beneath trees on a sunny day, with a bicycle helmet lying on the grass in the foreground.

Safety and School Coordination

Parental responsibility: Parents and guardians may be cited if their child under 18 violates these new laws.

NAPLS coordination: The New Albany Police Department is working with New Albany-Plain Local Schools to potentially require registration for powered scooters and e-bikes used on campus. The registration process would include a safety class.

A helmeted young rider in a light-blue T-shirt sits on a black fat-tire electric bike on a park path as pedestrians, including a woman in a red-and-white shirt carrying a blue bottle and a small white dog near the pavement, pass by on a sunny day.

Electric Dirt Bikes

These are not street legal and are not permitted on shared-use paths, sidewalks, or New Albany streets. Officers have stopped riders as young as 12 years old and have responded to multiple crashes. NAPD will be strictly enforcing e-dirt bike restrictions, and NAPLS has banned e-dirt bikes from campus. Students have been leaving them at Rose Run Park, where NAPD will patrol and issue warnings.

These new measures are intended to balance safety and mobility for everyone who uses New Albany’s roadways, sidewalks, and shared-use paths.

How You Can Help

Do you know someone who rides an e-bike or powered scooter, or a parent of a young rider? Please take a moment to share these important updates with them. The more people who know the rules, especially the requirements for helmets (under 18), the 10 mph speed limit on shared-use paths unless otherwise posted, and the restrictions on e-dirt bikes, the safer our community will be.