The rear wheel of Ultra Motor's A2B electric bike. | Mark Lennihan, AP
Published on June 3, 2025 at 4:25 pm
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After considering stricter rules for e-bike riders, the St. Johns County Commission will stick to what’s already on the books.
The Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday decided instead to pass a resolution encouraging riders to be safe.
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Bicycles powered by electric motors have been under increased scrutiny in St. Johns County after children riding the motorized vehicles on pedestrian pathways were injured in two back-to-back crashes this month.
Afterward, the County Commission tasked its legal team with drafting local regulations that would mandate stricter speed limits and other rules than state law requires.
Local e-bikers would have been required to outfit their vehicles with turn signals and a horn and lower their speed limit to 10 mph on pedestrian paths and sidewalks.
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The regulations also would have prohibited e-bikers from riding on “unincorporated portions of county roadways” or pedestrian paths before sunrise or after sunset.
Once commissioners got the rules in front of them Tuesday afternoon, they backed off.
The biggest criticism of the rules was that they would be difficult for the St. Johns Sheriff’s Office to enforce.
“We’re already taxing our uniformed personnel with the things that they do,” County Commissioner Clay Murphy said. “Adding chasing e-bikers around, I can only imagine the nightmare that’s going to be.”
The Sheriff’s Office has already increased its educational outreach about e-bike safety, and county commissioners agreed that may be a better way forward.
County Commissioner Sarah Arnold said that at the end of the day, it is up to parents to ensure their kids are being safe on their e-bikes.
“There are already rules of the road. There’s already statute in place that prevents some of these things, and it does come down to being a parenting issue,” she said. “I really would like to see perhaps an alternative solution rather than just additional legislation that can’t be enforced.”
Arnold said she would be in favor of granting additional funding to the Sheriff’s Department to allow officers to step up education efforts.
