Healey Wants To Be First In The Nation To Regulate E-Bikes. Here Is What It Means For Berkshire County.

If you have noticed e-bikes, scooters and mopeds zipping around Pittsfield with no clear rules about where they can go or how fast they can travel, Governor Maura Healey wants to change that.

We just had Pittsfield Police Chief Marc Maddalena on-air to discuss the recent complaints of e-bike operators driving recklessly in Pittsfield with seemingly no regard or knowledge of the law.

The new bill

Healey filed a bill last week called the Ride Safe Act. If it passes, Massachusetts would become the first state in the country to regulate e-bikes, scooters and mopeds under a brand new system based on how fast the device can go.

Here is how it would work. Every device gets sorted into one of four speed tiers.
The slowest tier covers anything that tops out at 20 mph, your standard pedal-assist e-bike, a kick scooter, even a skateboard. Those would be treated just like a regular bicycle. Riders under 16 would need a helmet.

The next tier covers devices that go between 20 and 30 mph. Riders would have to be at least 16 years old and helmets would be required for everyone.

The faster tiers, anything going 30 mph and above, would be banned from bike lanes, shared paths and sidewalks entirely. Those devices would also need to be registered and insured, similar to a car or motorcycle.

The bill also bans modifications that push a device beyond its manufactured speed limit, which has been a real problem locally when it comes to enforcement.

Bigger questions like speed limits and licensing are being kicked to a working group that has until the end of 2027 to figure it out.

This is still a bill, not a law. It now heads to the state legislature for debate. But with Pittsfield already wrestling with how to handle e-bikes on city streets, what happens on Beacon Hill matters here too.