There have been several proposals in the state Legislature over the past few years that would increase oversight of electric bicycles.

But the best, in our opinion, is a relatively simple proposal from House Rep. Jill Cooper, R-Export, who is drafting legislation that would give local governments clear authority to establish their own ordinances for e-bikes. There likely won’t be clear agreement at the state level what e-bike regulation should look like, with issues like licensing, registering and insuring the bicycles likely to lead to the same sort of disagreement we’ve seen during e-bike discussions at Warren City Council meetings. Cooper did say in her co-sponsorship memorandum that local governments would be able to require a registration fee if they so chose.

The lack of local authority to craft local ordinances made things difficult on Warren Police Chief Joe Sproveri, who earlier this year led an effort to install new signs at 45 locations throughout the downtown area while officers trained in bike enforcement patrolled on the department’s e-bikes. Numerous individuals were stopped, with the emphasis being placed on providing education and warnings, not tickets, being given. Sproveri told council members during an August meeting that officers had made 12 stops involving 15 people between the council’s July 21 meeting and its meeting Aug. 18.

E-bikes are in need of regulation, but no one wants to make the regulations so onerous as to make e-bikes impossible to use, either, since they are an affordable and emissions-free way for people to get around. Cooper’s position is to basically punt on the statewide issues but allow local governments to have the authority to come up with local ordinances for the use of e-bikes on roads and sidewalks. Cooper’s bill would allow statewide discussions to continue while also allowing local governments to deal with an issue that will likely come back with a vengeance in the spring. It’s a good compromise that should, in our opinion, garner support from lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle.