The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office is stepping up enforcement and education efforts about e-bikes. | News4Jax
Published on September 4, 2025 at 2:45 pm
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E-bike injuries have doubled in Northeast Florida over the past year, and medical officials say they’re on track to double again this year.
The rising number of injuries has prompted the AAA auto club to create a statewide campaign to highlight e-bike’s safety risks. AAA officials joined University of North Florida police Thursday to talk about the dangers of electric skateboards, scooters and bicycles.
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AAA’s “Safe Streets for Small Wheels” campaign will include social media and billboards, plus safety warnings at college campuses. AAA is not trying to “villainize” the use of e-bikes but work to raise awareness while discouraging risky driving habits, spokesperson Mark Jenkins said.
“These are viable modes of transportation for a lot of kids,” Jenkins said. “This is their main source of transportation, getting from home to school, home to work, you name it. But the importance is ensuring that you are being safe while using them.”
The news conference came a week after a 66-year-old St. Augustine man on an e-bike was killed when a sports utility vehicle hit him on U.S. 1 near Las Calinas Boulevard. The e-bike rider was not wearing a helmet and died at the scene.
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Wolfson Children’s Hospital reported in June that its doctors saw a 222% increase in injuries related to e-bikes and e-scooters from 2023 to 2024. Based on data from the first five months of 2025, the children’s hospital in Jacksonville said e-bike injuries are on track to double again.
Last month, St. Johns County Sheriff Robert Hardwick said he was drafting legislation to update Florida’s laws regarding e-bikes. Hardwick said Sen. Tom Leek, R-Ormond Beach, and Rep. Kim Kendall, R- St. Augustine, have agreed to sponsor the bill in the Senate and House.
The St. Johnns County Sheriff’s Office also is partnering with the school district to launch mandatory e-bike safety classes for sixth through eighth graders.
UNF Deputy Chief Adam Brown said e-bikes and e-scooters have a heavy presence on the Southside campus.
“We’ve received a lot of complaints, and that’s been from faculty, staff and other students — a lot of complaints of people kind of zooming in and out of the pedestrians on campus,” Brown said. “Fortunately, I pulled the stats for the last year — we’ve really only had one injury attributed to a scooter. And that was not even involving someone else; it was just an accident someone had on a scooter. But I want to get the message out now before we do have serious problems.”
AAA’s campaign asks e-bike riders to follow road rules and wear helmets. The auto club reminds car drivers to be alert because e-bikes and scooter use is increasing, especially among children.
UNF police have their own program in place called “Stroll It, Don’t Roll It,” which suggests that users get off e-bikes and e-scooters on campus and roll them across crosswalks, instead of riding them.
Jenkins also mentioned that e-bike users need to be careful when they use the raised crosswalks along UNF Drive.
“If you are on an e-scooter, you might just assume it’s OK to just zip on through — here’s a crosswalk, and I have the right of way, I can just zip across,” Jenkins said. “But the reality is that if you are coming 40 mph into that crosswalk, cars might not be expecting to see you, and they are preparing to drive across that and they could collide with you. Everybody has a responsibility in this.”
Here’s some of the basic safety rules AAA will promote for e-bike and e-scooter riders, and those who drive cars around them:
- Obey all traffic laws and signals, and make sure that car drivers can see you.
- Wear helmets and bright clothing, and use lights at night.
- Avoid distractions — do not use a cellphone or headphones.
- Drivers need to share the road with e-bike users, so “look for them; slow down.”
Jenkins also directed a warning to college students: Don’t drive an e-bike under the influence. Those electric vehicles can go almost as fast as a car, and “the risk is just the same.”
