Facing the Bike Menace -

A Call to Regulate E-Bikes in DC

On Sept. 22, 2025, the local news outlet, Popville, reported, a senior woman was knocked to the ground by a hit-and-run biker on the 1700 block of Columbia Rd. The victim was taken to the hospital with injuries, according to the police report. The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) had just completed an extensive redesign of that block, removing a traffic lane and installing a Protected Bike Lane.

The Columbia Road improvement is part of a plan for a network of bike lanes throughout the District to promote biking and make the streets safer, but residents say the road is more dangerous now. Protected bike lanes hug the curb. Buses and delivery trucks stop in traffic and cars drive into the oncoming traffic lane to get around them on a busy commercial strip.

Councilmember Charles Allen, seeing that bike lanes were little used, proposed to help residents buy e-bikes and the Council found $1 million in a tight budget for e-bike rebates.

Now, privileged above pedestrians and drivers, bikers go anywhere with impunity. Bikers use the lanes built especially for them, or not, as they choose. Pedestrians complain of powerful, silent bikes coming up behind them, speeding, cutting in and out of traffic, in crashes and near misses, at our peril. Seniors are easily spooked and lose their balance with dire consequences. Indeed, biking is the only mode of transit in DC that is unregulated. Increasingly, e-bikes are getting attention in the media. (See The New York Times Magazine - Nov. 30, 2025.) 

Still with all their promotion of biking, no elected official has anticipated the inevitable, hazardous consequences of a new generation of bike traffic. They all champion safe streets, yet none has proposed to regulate the bike menace they have unleased on a vulnerable, defenseless public. 

There is ample precedent for regulating biking. Priscilla’s Law in New York State is currently gaining momentum to register and tag e-bikes. Isreal requires tags on bikes and scooters, and Japan will begin a program of regulation in 2026.

What the bill would do

DC Safe Streets Coalition proposes a bike bill specifically to regulate e-biking. It would require registering e-bikes and tagging them. It would require insurance, licensing, certification and protective gear. It would limit speeds. 

What we can do now

Sign this petition to urge our city officials to regulate e-biking. Together, let’s make our streets safer for all.

DCSafeStreetsCoalition.org protests the removal of traffic lanes and the installation of protected bike lanes. It promotes bike regulation and world class public transit. - Nick DelleDonne delledonne.n@comcast.net 703 929 6656