The deluge of new rules continues… Now it’s Maricopa County. To step back for a moment, keep in mind there are NINETY TWO cities and towns in Arizona, in addition to THIRTEEN counties; each and every one of these jurisdictions has the authority to further regulate e-bikes (and bicycles, too!). Most recently we covered what was done in Queen Creek, which did have some bad stuff in it.

So the latest is Maricopa County: specifically only areas that are unincorporated, but excluding federal jurisdiction, and also excluding Maricopa County Parks. Both of which have THEIR OWN set of rules.

The Bad

Overall the new Ordinance is very reasonable and minimally restrictive. I do want to mention one bad feature that is getting copied (e.g. it is in Tempe’s ebike code, and was also in earlier proposed statewide legislation)…

A person shall not operate an electric bicycle, electric miniature scooter, or electric standup scooter at a speed greater than 5 miles per hour when passing a pedestrian or horse.

It’s unclear the way the clause is written where it applies, presumably it refers only to sidewalks or share use paths, but it’s still sloppy drafting. Anyway, the problem is, and I’ll repeat here from previous articles on the subject:

… many joggers/runners move at 5 to 10mph. It would be legally impossible to pass such people, a law-abiding bicyclist would need to just follow behind them indefinitely.
It’s also quite difficult to ride that slowly; it’s easy to lose balance and fall.

And I’ll admit I haven’t thought-through how horses fit in.

I also think the 15mph limit on paths is a bad one-size-fits-all rule, some paths are quite wide and 15mph limit is unreasonably restrictive and unnecessary for safety. For example, the South Mountain Shared Use Path is twenty feet wide. The width of a two-lane road!

The Good

It’s almost all good:

• • • It regulates only e-bikes (and e-scooters); bicyclists are not involved.
    • It does not alter the rules-of-the-road in any way.[1] In the roadway, e-bicyclists (and e-scooterists) are the same as bicyclists, they are the “driver of a vehicle”, and there’s already a full set of laws in that regard.

The reasonable:

• • • e-scooter rules work like class 1/2 e-bike.
    • No age limit for class 1/2
    • Min age 16 for class 3
    • Class 3 under 18 requires helmet
    • Class 3 banned from sidewalk (but not shared paths)
    • sidewalk speed limit of 15mph
      (as mentioned above, I think the limit for paths shouldn’t also be 15, depending on conditions).
    • no wheelies 🙂

As mentioned above, County Parks aren’t covered — if anybody has a handy link to those rules please leave it in the comments.

Are there any County shared use paths?… and that aren’t in Parks? (I don’t know of any but I rarely go outside of incorporated areas)

Some info about e-bikes on Federal use is here (with reference to SRP canal paths)

Bonus: City of Buckeye

I don’t have the energy to actually look up the ordinances, but according to the graphic it seems ok:

New e-bike, e-scooter regulation goes into effect this weekend in Buckeye

City’s webpage.

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Footnotes

[1] This clause worried me a little,  my emphasis on the word ‘may’ added: “If there is no bike lane or sidewalk, the operator of an electric bicycle, electric miniature scooter, and electric standup scooter MAY ride adjacent to the roadway at a speed no greater than the posted speed limit for vehicles”. I guess this is okay, it doesn’t say ‘shall’ or ‘must’. It’s not a back-door get-out-of-the-road law.

References

Press release, Maricopa County Approves E-Bike Ordinance Governing Unincorporated Areas.

Maricopa County Ordinance P-38.