Pinellas Commissioners Want Their Own E-Bike Rules After DeSantis Veto Left the State With None

Pinellas County commissioners spent part of a workshop Thursday, Aug. 20, working through what they can legally do about e-bikes and the faster "e-motos" now common on the Pinellas Trail, beach-town sidewalks and neighborhood streets, and the answer was: not much, at least not yet. Commissioner Brian Scott asked staff to begin drafting a local ordinance, which would be the county's first set of rules aimed at the machines. Gov. Ron DeSantis's June 25 veto of SB 382 killed what would have been Florida's first statewide e-bike safety standard, leaving cities and counties to write their own or write nothing.

The workshop opened with commissioners describing their own close calls, according to local news reports. Commissioner Kathleen Peters said a rider who looked about 10 or 11 years old cut her off on Gulf Boulevard while going faster than 30 mph. County Attorney Don Crowell said a wrong-way e-biker nearly hit him head on at dawn on East Bay Drive. Chairperson Dave Eggers said a young rider cut him off in traffic and then flipped him off twice.

Four tools, and that's it

Kyle Simpson, a senior planner with Forward Pinellas, the county's transportation planning agency, laid out the short list of what Florida law lets local governments do about e-bikes:

• Require riders to carry identification
• Set a minimum rider age
• Restrict e-bikes in specific places, including beaches
• Set maximum speed limits on sidewalks and trails

Parts of the 60-mile Pinellas Trail already carry a 20 mph limit. Enforcing it is the hard part. Clearwater police policy, for instance, does not permit officers to pursue an e-bike rider who takes off.

That is the highest toll of any county in the Tampa Bay region, which recorded 28 e-bike deaths in the same period. Forward Pinellas data shows electric vehicle deaths countywide rose from eight in 2024 to 11 in 2025. St. Petersburg police counted five fatal e-bike crashes in the city alone last year.

The bikes that aren't bikes

Several commissioners said the real hazard is the class of vehicle that looks like an e-bike but is not one. During the meeting, Scott pulled up an Amazon search for e-bikes and found listings for machines that would not qualify as e-bikes under state law. He said he has seen them on the trail. Scott told colleagues he wants an ordinance covering anything capable of high speeds, e-bike or e-moto, and said the danger climbs sharply once a rider passes 20 mph.

Legally, those faster machines are usually motor vehicles, which means they need registration, plates, tail lights and turn signals, and enforcement falls to law enforcement rather than to a county rule. Crowell cautioned the board that the vehicles sit in a gray area and suggested leaning on the county's partnership with the Sheriff's Office.

Peters urged the board to stick to what it can actually control, comparing the situation to the run of personal watercraft deaths in Pinellas years ago that ended after the state set a minimum operator age of 14. She said the fatality numbers on e-bikes are now worse than they were on WaveRunners. She also said she would not back an age limit here, because some students rely on e-bikes to get to school.

Cities are already moving

St. Petersburg posted 10 mph speed limit signs this month along the North Bay Trail, the downtown waterfront path running north from Demens Landing. Riders who blow past them can be cited for failing to obey a traffic control device rather than for speeding. No one has been cited yet, a police spokesperson said, because the department is focused on educating riders first. At a City Council meeting last week, council member Brandi Gabbard said she would never put her own teenager on an e-moto and expected the council to open its own ordinance discussion soon.

Gulfport staff brought a draft e-bike ordinance to its city council earlier this month. Council members leaned toward narrower rules that would apply during festivals and other crowded events, and held off pending more public safety data.

Pinellas County Schools got there first. On July 16, the district moved to add Policy 5500.09 to its Code of Student Conduct, covering "electric transportation" with definitions, storage requirements and safety expectations for students riding e-bikes and e-scooters to campus. The district has said the policy does not replace state law.

Advocacy group Connect Pinellas, which pushed for the vetoed bill, said it was disappointed and that the county remains one of the most dangerous in Florida for people walking and biking. The group says it will keep pressing for rules.

Commissioners did not set a vote date. They agreed to take the subject back up at a future meeting once staff return with options, and Scott has asked for those choices within the next month. Board agendas and workshop materials are posted at pinellas.gov.

We will follow this one through to a vote. For more on how county decisions land in your neighborhood, browse our government and politics and public safety coverage, or start at Pinellas County Community Website. Follow us on Facebook for updates as staff bring options back to the board, and tell us what you have seen on the trail lately: join the conversation in our Community Forum.

Header photo: Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.5)