{"id":233084,"date":"2026-03-13T19:35:30","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T19:35:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/13\/why-did-oregon-lower-the-legal-age-for-e-bike-riding\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T19:35:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T19:35:30","slug":"why-did-oregon-lower-the-legal-age-for-e-bike-riding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/13\/why-did-oregon-lower-the-legal-age-for-e-bike-riding\/","title":{"rendered":"Why did Oregon lower the legal age for e-bike riding?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div itemprop=\"text\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Breakdown of Oregon&#039;s New E-Bike Laws\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uApy_gULM4A?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>In the latest episode of the BikePortland Podcast, you\u2019ll meet Cameron Bennett, a self-described \u201cchampion of things with small wheels\u201d and board member of The Street Trust who leads the Oregon Micromobility Network. I wanted to bring Cam on to tell us about the big legislative victory they scored last week when lawmakers passed House Bill 4007. <\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"width: 100%; height: 200px;\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" allow=\"clipboard-write\" seamless=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/player.captivate.fm\/episode\/1d9d717e-aa0a-4726-a47a-86a3b0cf2dea\/\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>HB 4007 does several important things: it lowers the legal age for riding a Class 1 (no throttle, 20 mph max) e-bike from 16 to 14 years of age; it defines \u201cpowered micromobility device\u201d in Oregon law for the first time; and it prohibits retailers from selling \u201ce-bikes\u201d that are actually e-motorcycles. The new laws are also notable for what they don\u2019t do: They don\u2019t create absurd regulations around e-bikes like we\u2019ve seen in places like New Jersey where a recent bill passed by their legislature requires all e-bike riders to have license and registration. <\/p>\n<p>I asked Cam about all this and more in our conversation this morning that\u2019s now available for your listening and\/or viewing pleasure on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. <\/p>\n<p>Below is an excerpt from a short clip of the interview.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Jonathan: <\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cWe see headlines about young people crashing, and that\u2019s always gets a lot of attention, but this bill actually lowered the age where people can ride e bikes. So tell me a little bit about the thinking behind that.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Cameron:<\/strong> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cIt allows kids under the age of 16 to learn safe road behavior before they\u2019re behind the wheel of a vehicle. You know, we see this in countries with higher rates of cycling. When you have a familiarity with being a vulnerable road user, you\u2019re a more respectful driver down the line. So we see this this really potent through-effects for getting folks on e-bikes before they get behind the wheel of a car.<\/p>\n<p>The last major piece that this age change will allow is it will give educators more flexibility to bring e-bikes into the classroom at a younger age. So now any safe routes for Safe Routes to School education that happens in a high school environment can include e-bikes. This just gives us another opportunity to help foster a safer road culture at a younger age throughout state.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Jonathan: <\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cAre we safe from those kind of absurd laws that we saw in New Jersey and a couple other places?\u201d <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Cameron:<\/strong> <\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cI think that the law that we saw pop up in New Jersey, which which now requires licensing registration for all e-bikes in the state,<br \/>is maybe the best selling point for the approach that we\u2019ve taken here in Oregon. Yeah, definitely finding ourselves playing defense to some extent and I don\u2019t think that we\u2019re necessarily safe. <\/p>\n<p>This will allow local governments to regulate these devices in the ways that make sense to them. So anywhere where you\u2019re expecting to see mixing with pedestrians and pedal cyclists, we felt that it was appropriate that local governments should have a say on how that mixing plays out. <\/p>\n<p>There are also some new provisions set up that regulate the sale of e-bikes and micromobility devices. If a device is capable of going faster than 28 miles per hour, it would be illegal to sell it as a micromobility device in Oregon. The same goes for an e-bike, right? If a device is capable of going faster than 28 mph or faster than 20 with a throttle, then it would not be legal to sell that device as an e-bike in Oregon \u2014 because that would be a deceptive marketing practice. The way that the statute is set up is that there\u2019d be a $250 fine per vehicle sold in that manner. And what we\u2019re seeing in other states, California and Minnesota in particular who\u2019ve have passed legislation to this effect, we\u2019ve seen a wholesale change in the way that many retailers are marketing their devices. So it\u2019s really just the threat of punishment that seems to be effective enough to elicit enough of a behavior change that the market shifts in the correct direction.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-9-16 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Oregon Law Now Lets 14 Year Olds Ride E-Bikes\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mmJV2LElgAQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/bikeportland.org\/2026\/03\/13\/why-did-oregon-lower-the-legal-age-for-e-bike-riding-399600\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the latest episode of the BikePortland Podcast, you\u2019ll meet Cameron Bennett, a self-described \u201cchampion of things with small wheels\u201d and board member of The Street Trust who leads the Oregon Micromobility Network. I wanted to bring Cam on to tell us about the big legislative victory they scored last week when lawmakers passed House [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":233087,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6804],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-233084","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}