Methuen students who don't yet hold a Massachusetts driver's license could soon be barred from riding electric bicycles onto school campuses, as the Methuen School Committee weighs new restrictions following a rise in e-bike crashes and injuries around the city. The proposal, still in its early stages, would target students who bring the increasingly popular high-speed bikes and scooters to school grounds without a license in hand.
The committee raised concerns about the speed and design of some electric bikes and scooters, along with a string of e-bike-related accidents and injuries, according to CBS Boston. Methuen has seen a rise in e-bike accidents over the past several months, the outlet reported, and Vice Chair Nicholas Dizoglio has been among the most vocal committee members pushing to address it. Dizoglio said he has personally observed students riding downhill without helmets and described some electric bikes as looking like mini mopeds rather than bicycles.
Speed, Design and a Safety Reckoning
Dizoglio said riders have been cutting gauges and speeding around turns, and he flagged scooters as another safety issue on top of the e-bikes themselves. He framed riding an e-bike or scooter as a responsibility and a privilege, not an unrestricted right, and said the underlying issue is one of student and public safety. He also called for infrastructure and resources to keep students, pedestrians and other community members safe on the roads.
The committee has indicated it sees itself as having a responsibility to regulate what students bring onto school campuses, even as it acknowledged that Massachusetts holds broader authority over regulating electric bicycles and scooters statewide. For now, the proposal is headed to the district's policy subcommittee for further discussion before any formal vote. Committee members have also floated the idea of eventually asking the Methuen City Council to weigh restrictions across the entire city, not just on school property, though no such citywide proposal has been formally brought forward.
Doctors See More Young Riders Getting Hurt
The push for restrictions comes as at least one local physician is sounding the alarm from the emergency room. Katie Lupez, an emergency medicine physician with Tufts Medical Center, reported an increase in e-bike-related injuries among children and teenagers, per the same CBS Boston report. She said children and teenagers who ride without helmets are particularly affected, warning that e-bike crashes carry a high risk of brain injury, brain bleed, facial fractures and facial lacerations.
How Other Massachusetts Schools Have Responded
Methuen wouldn't be the first Massachusetts district to pump the brakes on e-bikes. Shrewsbury Public Schools has already moved to ban some e-bikes, motorized bikes and motorized scooters on its campuses, according to WHDH. The Shrewsbury superintendent cited the vehicles' speed, the difficulty drivers have seeing and avoiding them, and a heightened risk of accidents to riders, pedestrians and vehicles alike. Notably, Shrewsbury's ban does not apply to bikes with pedal assist, drawing a line between fully motorized devices and hybrid pedal-electric bikes.
Not everyone views an outright ban as the fix. A Worcester e-bike store owner told the outlet that the Shrewsbury ban was only a band-aid, arguing that schools should instead partner with shops and educators to teach students safe riding behavior rather than simply prohibiting the devices.
Higher education has grappled with the same question. Boston College announced in December 2022 that it would ban electric scooters and other electric transportation devices from campus starting that December 22, prohibiting their use, storage and charging on roadways, paths, parking lots, green spaces and inside university facilities. Devices found on campus after the deadline were subject to confiscation, and violations could bring sanctions, according to the university's policy announcement. Even so, Boston College carved out an exception for electric bicycles, which it said would continue to be allowed on campus as long as riders followed traffic rules, used bike racks for storage and kept the bikes out of campus buildings.
Whether Methuen ultimately follows Shrewsbury's approach, adopts something closer to Boston College's carve-out for pedal bikes, or crafts its own policy remains to be seen. The matter now heads to the district's policy subcommittee, with the possibility that city officials could later be asked to consider rules reaching beyond school property.
