North Providence's Town Council voted unanimously to begin drafting an ordinance that would govern or ban motorized bicycles on public roadways, sidewalks and parks, a move that follows a police charge against an e-bike rider for operating under the influence after a motor-vehicle accident and a string of recent close calls reported by residents.
The vote, reported by The Valley Breeze, does not create a ban on its own — it sends the matter to the council's ordinance subcommittee and asks the town solicitor to draft language, since North Providence currently has only an outdated ordinance addressing e-bikes. Council President Dino Autiello did not mince words about where he stands, saying he was adamantly opposed to e-bikes and wanted them off the streets. Councilor Steven DiLorenzo framed the vote more as a starting point, saying the town needed to begin a conversation about handling e-bikes.
Police Describe a Pattern of Close Calls and a DUI Crash
Police Lt. Kevin Guindon told the council that e-bike accidents and community-related incidents had increased in North Providence and elsewhere, and that resident complaints about e-bikes at schools, parks, events, sidewalks, parking lots and roadways had increased as well. He described riders traveling on Mineral Spring Avenue and weaving in and out of traffic, and said his department recently charged an e-bike rider with operating under the influence following a motor-vehicle accident. Guindon acknowledged a gap in the data, however: the department's system does not count e-bike incidents specifically, meaning there is no tally of exactly how many crashes or close calls have involved the vehicles.
Residents who addressed the council described their own encounters. Hector Betancur said he nearly got hit by an e-bike and added that riders are hard to see because many wear black. William Kane said he had witnessed two recent e-bike accidents and that a friend's son was struck just weeks earlier. Under current rules, e-bikes are not legally permitted on North Providence sidewalks, and riders are not required to carry a driver's license or register their vehicles the way motor-vehicle operators must.
State Law Sets Helmet and Age Rules, But Enforcement Lags
Rhode Island law already requires anyone under 21 who operates or rides as a passenger on an electric bicycle in a public right-of-way, park, school property or bike path to wear a helmet, a rule that took effect in mid-2024, according to state law. E-bike riders are also supposed to follow motor vehicle laws, including obeying stop signs, red lights and turn signals, and the machines themselves can travel up to 28 miles per hour depending on class. Guindon told the council that police should start by educating parents, with the option to seize e-bikes if problems are not resolved.
Emergency Rooms Are Seeing More e-Bike-Related Visits
The push for local regulation comes amid a broader spike in e-bike and e-scooter injuries showing up in hospital data across the state. The seed reporting cites 85 e-bike incidents leading to emergency-room visits at Hasbro Children's Hospital in 2025, climbing to 143 in just the first seven months of 2026, with 40 percent of those injured in that seven-month stretch under age 18. A separate account from eastbayri.com similarly put Hasbro's 2025 total at 85 visits and its 2026 total at 143 through seven months, and reported that Rhode Island has logged more than 1,200 e-bike- and e-scooter-related emergency visits since tracking began, with nearly 40 percent involving children under 18 — a separate statewide tally covering a different time span than the Hasbro-specific numbers.
Other hospital data point in the same direction. WPRI reported that Brown University Health saw just 21 emergency-department visits tied to e-bikes, scooters and dirt bikes in 2020, a number that climbed to 285 by 2025, with 954 such visits recorded across Brown Health's emergency departments over five years. A national analysis cited by mlive.com found 12,485 emergency-department visits tied to e-bike and e-scooter injuries nationwide between January 2023 and May 2026, with the rate among patients under 18 rising from 9.3 per 10,000 emergency visits in 2023 to 71.1 in 2026 — a 671 percent increase.
Neighboring Towns Have Already Moved on E-Bike Rules
North Providence is not alone in wrestling with the issue. Barrington's Town Council approved a 3-0 amendment expanding its motorized-bike restrictions to cover e-bikes and scooters, extending existing limits on parks, parking lots and sidewalks to the newer vehicles. East Providence's city council passed an ordinance banning electric bicycles from city parks, recreation spaces and public sidewalks, according to a prior Hoodline report on nearby e-bike debates. North Smithfield, by contrast, tabled further discussion of its own proposed ordinance, with councilors there asking for an ordinance draft, Parks & Recreation input and a public hearing rather than taking immediate action, according to Citizen Portal. Barrington, East Providence, Smithfield and Haverhill, Massachusetts have either updated or are working on their own e-bike ordinances, reflecting a regional push to catch municipal rules up to the vehicles' growing popularity.
For now, North Providence's path forward runs through its ordinance subcommittee, which will work with the town solicitor on draft language before any rules reach the council for a vote. What that draft will say about scope, exceptions or penalties has not yet been made public.
