West Mifflin’s most recent borough council meeting was similar to hundreds across the state. For a while, councilors discussed paving roads, rock salt contracts and code violations.
Then councilors turned their attention to Chief of Police Gregory McCulloch.
“Anything on the e-bikes?” Council Vice President Dan Davis asked McCulloch.
That sparked a flurry of questions from other councillors.
Are they legal? How are they different from scooters? What have the police seen?
Across the state, e-bikes have become a topic for suburban municipalities as local leaders raise concern over the safety of the motor-assisted bicycles that have flooded the U.S. market.
At least seven municipalities surrounding Pittsburgh passed or are actively considering ordinances that regulate e-bike usage on land owned by the municipality, including parks and trails. Those efforts are complicated by state vehicle regulations that haven’t been updated in more than a decade, leading some municipal officials to conclude that local regulations are ineffective. It comes amid a push in Harrisburg to rework the state’s bike code.
Upper St. Clair is among towns that have decided not to wait, passing an e-bike ordinance in June.
“It’s been like the Wild Wild West,” said Adam Benigni, the planning and community development director. “We need to have some regulations.”
Upper St. Clair: Helmet requirement, park ban
The ordinance in Upper St. Clair, as with one in Bethel Park also passed in June, imposes limits on how riders can operate e-bikes on municipal property. Both ordinances cite safety concerns and limit what e-bike riders can do and where they can go on municipal-owned trails and parks.
Both ordinances place helmet requirements on riders under 21. First-time violators in Upper St. Clair can face a $100 dollar fine, according to Benigni.
Benigni said the ordinance was fueled by concern for safety at the township’s parks. He said e-bike riders tend to be younger, and often ignore pedestrians on the seven miles of municipal trails. On top of that, he said, some riders had purposefully torn up township-owned sportsfields.
“We want to be safe with our property. We want to make sure every user, as much as we can … isn’t put in a dangerous situation,” he said. “Are they still going to be some people flying through the park on an electrically-motorized device at some point? I’m sure.”
Mt. Lebanon this month considered an ordinance similar to Upper St. Clair’s. Among other things, it would have limited the speed of the bikes to 15 mph, five under the state’s limit. It would have imposed a maximum $600 fine plus costs of prosecution for any violation.
Exploding sales, lagging laws
The ordinances come as e-bikes have exploded in popularity. Although introduced in the early 2000s, U.S. E-bike imports have grown since 2020, according to an analysis by Bicycle Retailer & Industry news. American consumers imported about 2.2 million e-bikes in 2025 alone. About 1 million e-bikes were sold in 2022, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
Like other vehicles, bicycles are regulated under the Pennsylvania Motor Vehicle Code. For decades, the definition of a bicycle was limited to pedal-powered vehicles.
“It’s really saved bike shops … It kept us going. The bike industry reinvented itself.”
Craig Cozza, Owner of PRO Bike + RUN
That changed in 2014, when the state legislature approved a revision to the code that expanded the definition of a bicycle to include those powered with electric assistance from a motor. Under state law, e-bikes have to be under 100 pounds, have a motor with no more than 750 watts and they can’t go faster than 20 mph on a level surface when solely powered by the motor.
Ted King-Smith, Bike Pittsburgh’s education manager, said that e-bikes are the fastest-growing sector of the bike industry. Their relative ease of use has drawn in consumers who wouldn’t normally consider themselves bikers, including young parents.
With more investment in bike infrastructure, will Pittsburgh’s neighborhoods benefit equally?
King-Smith said he owns around 15 bikes, one of which is an e-bike.
Craig Cozza owns PRO Bike + Run, with stores across Allegheny County. He called the introduction of e-bikes “massive” for his bike business, which “already isn’t very profitable” and is largely subsidized by his extensive real estate holdings.
Those thin margins have been boosted by e-bikes, which make up around 40% of sales at his stores, said Cozza. He said he expects that number to grow.
“It’s really saved bike shops … It kept us going. The bike industry reinvented itself” with e-bikes, said Cozza.
Cozza said he’s seen e-bikes especially appreciated by older riders in a region defined by its steep hills and winding roads. “Nobody wants to push a bike up a hill,” he said.
The rise in e-bikes has also coincided with increasing injuries. Across the country, e-bike-related injuries climbed nearly 91% from 2019 to 2022, according to a 2025 study from the Physician and Sports Medicine Journal. More than 30% of the injuries the study examined involved motor vehicles.
Last month, an e-bike rider in Pittsburgh’s South Side was taken to the hospital after colliding with a vehicle.
“It’s probably a good thing [municipalities] are doing something about it,” Cozza said, referring to e-bikes. He added that he isn’t worried about the impact of regulations on his business.
Brentwood walks back e-bike ban
Efforts to curb or regulate e-bike usage at the municipal level are complicated by state law, which doesn’t allow municipalities to regulate vehicle usage on non-municipal property, like state-owned roads.
For instance, municipalities can ban bicycle riding on municipal sidewalks in commercial districts, but can’t outright ban bikes or e-bikes on streets. An ordinance in McCandless that proposed limiting e-bike speeds on public pathways was dead on arrival in October because only the state can regulate motorized vehicles on roadways.
Brentwood passed an ordinance banning “recreational motorized vehicles” on public roadways and sidewalks in 2022. The borough’s definition of these vehicles included e-bikes.
The borough passed an updated ordinance last month walking back the statute. The 2022 ordinance was designed to limit the use of vehicles like dirt bikes and all terrain vehicles, but its “broad nature” meant the law could be “interpreted to apply to electric bicycles,” according to the 2026 regulation. It mentions that only the state can regulate e-bikes on non-municipally-owned property.
Brentwood’s new regulation bans e-bikes on municipally-owned property. It states that e-bike use on public roadways has to comply with the state’s motor vehicle code.
Mt. Lebanon Commissioner Andrew Flynn opposed Mt. Lebanon’s proposed e-bike ordinance because it didn’t strike at the “bulk of the problem.” While there have been turf-destroying incidents like those in Upper St. Clair, Flynn said most Mt. Lebanon e-bike riders use their vehicles on streets, not in parks.
“It’s a secondary issue that’s playing on people’s concern, but not addressing the structural issue. To me, that’s not how you legislate,” he said, adding that of the five e-bike-related safety incidents in the municipality none would have been prevented by the ordinance.
Flynn is a former board member of Mt. Lebanon transportation advocacy group MoveLebo. The group publicly opposed the ordinance at a July 28 public hearing, after which the commission tabled it, effectively shelving it.
Further complicating this picture is an influx of relatively inexpensive, fast electric motorcycles that oftentimes look identical to bicycles.
Next challenge: e-motos
As e-bike purchases have grown, so too have sales of electric motorcycles, better known as e-motos. These vehicles have larger motors that don’t require the user to pedal. They can go faster, from 30 mph to close to 100.
E-motos often exceed the 750-watt limit for bikes and aren’t defined by Pennsylvania law, putting them into a legal “gray area,” according to Bike Pittsburgh’s King-Smith. He said that the e-motos are marketed by their manufacturers for use on private property, but owners don’t always feel constrained.
“What you have now is a device that should be treated like a motorcycle and is bought direct to the consumer and being used anywhere,” he said. “It’s going to be a problem.”
Any vehicle that isn’t explicitly described in the motor vehicle code can’t be operated on public roadways, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.
Upper St. Clair’s ordinance explicitly bans e-motos on all municipally-owned property.
E-motos became easily available in the late 2010s, when a Chinese company began importing them into the U.S. The market size for these vehicles is expected to grow to $3.58 billion by 2030, up from $1.14 billion last year, according to a report from market research firm Mordor Intelligence.
Electric motorcycles can cost as little as $1,000 and can be purchased online, making them accessible to a wide array of consumers.
“It’s going to be a problem.”
Ted King-Smith, Bike Pittsburgh education manager
Cozza said that e-moto riders have come into his store with broken vehicles, seen how much a repair would cost and instead opted to throw away their rides and buy a new one online.
Municipal tightening of e-bike restrictions comes as the state lawmakers look to revamp the motor vehicle code, following other states’ lead. Under a New Jersey law signed in January, e-bikes that top out at 20 mph require a license. E-bikes that reach 28 mph require insurance.
State Rep. Jill Cooper, R-Westmoreland, introduced a bill this month that adopts a three-tier classification system for bikes and e-bikes, similar to that used on federal land, including national parks. Cooper said the goal is to bring Pennsylvania into alignment with surrounding states.
State Sen. James Andrew Malone, D-Lancaster, has sponsored legislation to conduct a study regarding e-bike definitions in the state. Both have been referred to their respective committees.
Lucas Dufalla is the Southern Communities reporter at Pittsburgh’s Public Source and can be reached at lucas@publicsource.org.
This story was fact checked by Ada Perlman.
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