What has up to four wheels and a menu with dozens of different variations? No, it’s not the Mister Softee truck on the corner–it’s the wide array of classifications and rules for e-bikes and other micromobility devices across the tri-state region.

Micromobility refers to short-distance transportation using devices that are smaller, slower, and lighter than cars. While the term includes human-powered bikes and scooters, this resource guide is focused on electric devices used for individual, intracity travel, most commonly including e-bikes and e-scooters. Micromobility devices can replace short trips for people and small freight, fill gaps in existing transportation networks, increase access to opportunity, and provide a more efficient and sustainable alternative to cars and trucks.

Expanding access to electric micromobility options has the potential to transform the tri-state region and aid our transition away from less fuel- and space-efficient modes of transportation. However, the recent, rapid growth of e-bike and e-scooter usage, accompanied by battery fires and high-profile crashes often involving illegal motorized two-wheelers, has overshadowed the potential benefits of safe modes of micromobility, resulting in fear and a backlash of strict regulations. In order to see the benefits of micromobility while removing the most dangerous devices from our streets, policymakers, enforcement officers, and the public require clear and meaningful definitions of device types which inform good policy and increase safety for all travelers.

Understanding Micromobility Device Types

Within the broad categories of ​“e-bike” and ​“e-scooter,” there are many subcategories, distinguishing devices based on:

• Maximum assisted speed
• The presence or absence of working pedals
• Power features (e.g. pedal-assist, throttle, or a combination of the two) and braking
• Vehicle width
• Vehicle weight
• Motor wattage or horsepower
• The number of wheels
• Other characteristics like whether the rider is upright vs. seated

In addition to their physical characteristics, micromobility devices differ in terms of their use, which could be personal or commercial, as well as their ownership, which could be private, shared (such as in bike-share programs), rented, or leased. These factors are also important to understanding the uses, benefits, and safety features of electric micromobility, and to ensuring systems of classification work for everyone.

The images below show common categories of micromobility devices, with key features highlighted in yellow to demonstrate meaningful differences in maximum assisted speed, power features, wheels, and more.

These physical characteristics have implications for the safety of the rider as well as the safety of pedestrians, cyclists, and any others nearby. Just like with cars, crashes involving faster, heavier devices result in more severe injuries while slower and lighter micromobility devices may pose risks closer to those of human-powered bikes and scooters, although more granular data is needed to determine safe thresholds. However, the classification and regulation of devices does not always align what is legal with what is safe.

Recognizing Illegal Devices, or Illegal Micromobility Uses

In New York City, e-bikes and e-scooters exceeding legal max speed and weight account for half of the fatalities resulting from crashes involving motorized two-wheelers.  Devices with a max speed of 25 mph or greater can look similar to legal e-bikes, causing confusion and creating the mistaken impression that all e-bikes are equally dangerous. Public and policymaker perceptions of device safety are further complicated by the fact that crash reporting often lumps a wide range of devices under the category of e-bike or e-scooter, making it difficult to demonstrate what is safe. It’s also unclear what share of overall riders is on e-bikes or e-scooters exceeding legal max assisted speeds.

People may knowingly or unknowingly purchase and use devices which are not safe to operate near other riders and pedestrians, especially in the dense urban setting of New York City. These devices are often sold, advertised, and used as e-bikes or e-scooters, but technically they are not legal on bike lanes or streets in New York State, New York City, or Connecticut, and more accurately meet the definition of a limited use motorcycle or greater, which must be registered with the DMV. In New Jersey, use of even the slowest pedal-assist e-bike would be considered illegal without license and registration. 

Hoverboards, Segways, electric skateboards, one-wheeled scooters, and electric unicycles are generally illegal on streets, sidewalks and bike lanes in New York State, New York City, New Jersey, and Connecticut. In Connecticut however, Segways are considered electric personal assistive mobility devices and in some cases may be ridden on sidewalks and through crosswalks, but not on streets.

Micromobility Classifications and Rules Across the Region

Jurisdictions at the Federal, State, and municipal levels have developed systems of classification to distinguish between micromobility device types for the purpose of increased safety. However, those systems often vary, creating inconsistent regulations and classifications that cause confusion for personal and commercial users, policymakers, and law enforcement. Ultimately, this can discourage the use of legal micromobility. At its worst, a confusing classification system can produce the exact opposite of its intended effect, burdening lower-risk riders while failing to keep dangerous devices off streets and bike lanes.

States and municipalities create rules of the road which may apply differently to their defined classes. For example, Class 1 e-bikes, which have the lowest maximum assisted speed of 20 mph, can legally be used in more places and are regulated similarly to human-powered bikes. Higher-class e-bikes and e-scooters, defined based on features like maximum assisted speed and the presence of a throttle, are more strictly regulated.

The table below summarizes the treatment of micromobility devices across the tri-state region and within New York City, highlighting differences in the classification of devices and some of the rules used to regulate them. Notable special cases are in bold.

Rules for the same devices are inconsistent across jurisdictions, especially in New Jersey

One device can fall under a different class, or even become illegal, with the crossing of a jurisdictional boundary

In New Jersey, the broad classification of ​“Motorized Bicycles/Mopeds” combines the equivalent of low-speed Class 2 and 3 e-bikes in New York and Connecticut with devices that would be illegal in those states, such as throttle-propelled devices with a maximum speed up to 28 mph. On the other hand, Connecticut aligned its micromobility classifications more closely with New York when it passed extensive e-bike and e-scooter legislation in 2025. 

In New York State, Class 3 e-bikes, with a maximum speed of up to 25 mph, are only legal on the dense and crowded streets of New York City.  The likelihood of serious injury and death increases with speed and device weight, and 20 mph is widely considered a safe speed limit on urbanized roads with a mix of motorized and non-motorized users. This demonstrates the fact that what is technically legal is not necessarily safe, and bike safety advocates in New York City and beyond are calling for an end to the sale and use of Class 3 e-bikes and scooters with a maximum assisted speed over 20 mph.

New York City is leading in the use of pedal-assist cargo bikes to replace delivery trucks

New York City stands out for its authorization and guidance around the use of cargo bikes, or commercial pedal-assist bicycles, for deliveries. While human-powered cargo bikes were legal on some streets at the time, starting in 2018 New York City worked to clarify the legality of pedal-assist delivery bicycles. After a successful Commercial Cargo Bike pilot program in 2019, cargo bike deliveries have grown significantly, and in 2024 New York City DOT authorized the operation of commercial pedal-assist bicycles in both bike lanes and travel lanes. 

According to the results of the pilot, two cargo bikes may replace up to a delivery van or small box truck’s worth of cargo, reducing emissions, improving safety, and reducing congestion compared to delivery trucks. Commercial cargo bikes have a maximum speed of 15 mph (some models, including those used by Amazon, have a maximum speed of 12 mph), and in dense urban areas they can operate similarly to postal trucks, on predefined routes with frequent stops. Unlike postal or delivery trucks, however, cargo bikes can park perpendicular to the curb to save space for other vehicles or transfer cargo in dedicated bike corrals, although, unlike bikes and scooters, they can never park on the sidewalk. Commercial cargo bikes improve street congestion, safety, and sustainability, and rules governing them should be predictable and reduce barriers to their use in order to achieve the greatest benefits of micro-freight deliveries.

Misunderstood classifications discourage the growth of safe micromobility

The chart above, combined with examples of day-to-day impacts of e-bike classifications in New York City and New Jersey, illustrate the challenges and complexity of the rules governing micromobility in our region.

Streets are less safe when dangerous vehicles are in the mix with safe ones, when riders can’t easily understand the differences between legal and illegal devices, when what is legal is not aligned with what is safe, and when users of safe devices are discouraged by onerous registration requirements or the fear of penalties. The debates around Class 3 e-bikes in New York City and registration for motorized bikes in New Jersey are complicated by the fact that many of the most dangerous devices on the road fall outside of these legal categories. Last month, Mayor Zohran Mamdani issued cease-and-desist orders to retailers of scooters over 100 lbs or 20 mph, e-bikes with motors exceeding 25 mph, and mopeds without visible identification. Not only are these devices dangerous, but consumers may unknowingly purchase illegal e-bikes and scooters when misleading advertising is coupled with confusion around what is street-legal. 

Conflating safe micromobility devices with these illegal devices gives e-bikes and e-scooters a bad reputation and can result in legislation such as we have seen in New Jersey, which discourages even safe and legal micromobility in the pursuit of taking illegal devices off the streets.