The New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission says that e-bike owners should sign up to get their vehicles registered now. The agency is now accepting appointments online.
“Summer’s very hectic. It's about to be Fourth of July. We're already seeing an uptick in traffic. People on e-bikes, people on pedal bikes,” said Mantoloking Police Chief Stacy Ferris.
There is now a new online portal where one can make appointments to register their e-bikes.
“Every time a document comes out, we keep pushing it out. It's sending officers to training, it's sending officers to meetings to make sure that we are not missing anything for information coming out from the state of New Jersey,” Ferris says.
New sticker decals resembling mini license plates will be required to go on the front fork of registered e-bikes, letting officers know it is registered.
“Our goal is to do education-first enforcement when needed and just make sure everyone has a safe summer in our community,” said Mantoloking Traffic Safety Supervisor Sgt. Jon Meyer.
Meyer encourages parents to call with questions, have those discussions now, sign up online, read the fine print, and be ready.
“We need families, we need friends to educate young riders out there to ensure everyone is safe this summer,” said Meyer.
The new rules come with two major changes: All e-bikes are banned for riders under 15 and helmets are required for all riders.
“There's been so many fatalities in the state of New Jersey involving e-bikes and just even vehicles, so having that helmet as an extra layer is so important,” said Ferris.
Sign-ups for registration appointments beginning on Friday are open now. Enforcement begins on July 20.
The requirements for licensing, insuring, and registering e-bikes are extensive. More information can be found HERE. https://www.nj.gov/mvc/vehicletopics/ebike.htm