Are e-bikes human powered? How a Boise crash inspired a new Idaho bill
Are e-bikes human powered? The answer to that question matters for drivers navigating other users on Idaho roads.
The question came to a head in March 2024, when a driver turned into an e-bike rider in a bike lane in downtown Boise, according to court documents. Police cited the driver, arguing he violated a state code that requires drivers to watch out for pedestrians and human-powered vehicles, court documents showed. But a judge dismissed the case in September 2024, because it’s not clear if e-bikes count as human-powered.
“I’m not here to determine fault for this accident,” Magistrate Judge Adam Strong told the court, according to audio shared with the Statesman by a state lawmaker. “This is a combination of human powered and electric. ”
E-bikes have the same rights and responsibilities as regular bicycles under state law, but also, the code itself didn’t say bike - it said human-powered, Strong said. Now, a Boise legislator is trying to close that loophole.
That state law cited in the case was created when former President Ronald Reagan was in office and the legislature hasn’t updated that section of code since. But in the 40 years since, technology has changed. Now, Rep. Chris Mathias, D-Boise, introduced a bill on Monday to include e-bikes in the code.
That means cars would need to watch out for e-bikes on the road. The legislation would also clarify that e-bike riders need to follow regular traffic laws and sit only on the permanent, attached seat. There also couldn’t be more e-bike riders than normal under the proposed bill, a regulation that already applies to regular bicycles.
“You don’t have a pass on colliding with electric-assisted bicycles,” Mathias told the House Judiciary, Rules and Administration Committee on Monday. “Traffic laws also apply to electric-assisted bicycles … They don’t get a pass either.”
Mathias first heard about the issue during the 2025 legislative session, when the person involved in the crash reached out. He said in a phone interview that he cleared the bill with prosecutors in the Gem State.
Attempts to regulate e-bikes
E-bikes have seemingly taken the world by storm. On any given day on the Greenbelt, passersby can hear the bikes’ electronic hum or see a cyclist whiz by without pedaling at all.
Not all e-bikes are created alike; some can go faster than others and some don’t require the rider to pedal. Other consumers have managed to unlock their bikes to get around the vehicle’s speed limit, the Statesman previously reported.
This isn’t the only local attempt to regulate e-bikes or other electronically assisted modes of transportation. Boise and Ada County have both created infraction offenses for speeding on the Greenbelt, though from August 2024 to June 2025, Ada County Deputies did not make any arrests or issue any citations.
Boise also worked with Lime, a prominent e-scooter and bike company, to slow motorists to between 10 and 12 miles per hour in certain parts of the city. The speed limit otherwise is 15 miles per hour.
The person hit in March 2024 is far from the only person to be in an electric bike or scooter crash in the Treasure Valley. Some, however have been far worse: In 2023, a Nampa crash between a pickup truck and e-biker left the bicyclist dead and in 2021, a teenager died after a car hit him while he was riding an electric scooter.
