Cape Cod Rail Trail.
HARWICH – Electric bike safety has come into focus in Massachusetts after several deadly and dangerous crashes, including on Cape Cod.
A 13-year-old boy was killed in a collision with a car in Stoneham which happened in November. Massachusetts House Speaker Ron Mariano called the crash a tragedy, and said that elected officials could be looking into new training and licensing requirements.
A man was also killed in an e-bike crash in Boston over the summer.
According to the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition, the use of e-bikes, also known as electric-assist bicycles, has grown rapidly in the last five years. “Modern e-bikes often look indistinguishable from a “regular” bike but have robust batteries and technology which are capable of sensing when a rider needs a helping hand over a hill, into a headwind, or accelerating from a stop.”
A Mass law defining e-bikes was signed in 2022.
According to MassBike, e-bike riders are afforded all the rights and privileges related to all bicycle riders, except that e-bikes are not allowed to be ridden on sidewalks. They are allowed on bikeways and bike paths, but the group says a local jurisdiction may regulate and prohibit their use on bikeways and bike paths after a public notice and public hearing.
On Cape Cod, a Brewster woman, Lynne Forester, survived being impaled in her eye by an e-bike’s handlebars during a crash that happened while she was walking on the Cape Cod Rail Trail in Harwich. This happened in September.
Forester has now joined the cause of regulating the bikes, telling news outlets after the incident that they shouldn’t be allowed on the rail trail.
By Jim McCabe, CapeCod.com NewsCenter
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