Electric bikes are quiet, quick and tempting for a kid who just got one for the holidays or a birthday. In Wyoming, city leaders say they are also showing up in crash reports at more than twice last year’s pace.
According to Cowboy State Daily, officials are now wrestling with how to handle kids zipping down sidewalks, darting into traffic and sometimes moving faster than the cars around them.
22 E-Bike Crashes This Year, Compared With 10 In All Of 2025
The latest figures from the Wyoming Department of Transportation show 22 crashes involving e-bikes through Oct. 29. All of 2025 had 10, and 2024 had seven.
Twenty-three people have been injured in e-bike crashes this year. Four of the crashes were deemed critical, meaning they involved fatal or suspected serious injuries.
The growing number of wrecks has city officials brainstorming ways to keep children safe without turning residential neighborhoods into police patrol zones.
“You’ve Got 7-, 8-, 9-Year-Old Kids Going 30 Miles An Hour,” The Mayor Says
In Rock Springs, Mayor Max Mickelson said the summer brought an avalanche of complaints from residents worried that someone was going to get seriously hurt. “The speed of government has not kept up with the speed of innovation,” he told council members at a September meeting.
E-bikes, he said, can travel at surprisingly high speeds without making much noise. “You’ve got, you know, 7-, 8-, 9-year-old kids going 30 miles an hour,” he said.
His point about physics was blunt. When cars and people collide, he said, “the cars always win.”
Rock Springs Approves Helmets For Minors And Fines Up To $50
As of Friday, Rock Springs had approved its new e-bike ordinance. It allows riders on sidewalks under certain conditions, requires helmets for minors riding Class 3 e-bikes and sets fines of up to $50 for violations.
Electric bicycles generally fall into three classes. Class 1 bikes provide pedal assistance up to 20 mph, while Class 2 models can use a throttle to move the bike without pedaling, also up to 20 mph.
Class 3 models provide pedal assistance at higher speeds, generally up to 28 mph. That is why helmets are being required for young riders on that class.
“We’re Not Going To Go Chasing Them,” Councilman Says, “Parents Have To Be On Board”
Councilman Randy Hanson, a former police officer, said the debate reminded him of earlier generations of children riding motorcycles, four-wheelers and bicycles through residential neighborhoods. The machines have changed, but the questions have not.
Do children ride on the sidewalk or the street? With traffic or against it? Do they stop at traffic lights? And does anybody remember the hand signals they were taught as children?
He described a 12-year-old who had driven a four-wheeler into a car. When Hanson confronted the child’s parent, the response was that the youngster had only been riding around the block.
“Parents have to be on board with what we’re doing,” he said. “We’re not going to go chasing them because that’s going to cause more problems than anything else.”
The proposed ordinance, he explained, had two purposes: to respond to those concerns and to give police a practical way to address especially dangerous behavior before somebody was seriously injured or killed.
“This is to give the city some kind of enforceable tool to try to correct the most egregious, high-risk activities in response to the public’s request that the city do something to try to prevent a tragedy,” he said.
“They Are Awesome,” Admits The Mayor, But Rules Have To Work In The Real World
Hanson also emphasized that some responsibility belongs to parents. “We live in a part of the country where the freedom to be on those motorized vehicles, whether they’re electric or petrol-fueled, is a huge part of who we are,” he said.
There will always be tension, he said, between residents who want peace and quiet and those who want the freedom to ride.
Mickelson did not hide his own enthusiasm. He asked council members who had tried an electric bike and told them, “they are awesome.” “They go really fast with not a lot of effort, which is super fun.”
The trick, he suggested, is writing rules that make sense in real life and are not impossible to enforce. “We certainly don’t want our police, you know, tasing 8-year-olds because they’re going 25 on the sidewalk,” he said.
Other Wyoming Cities Are Working On Their Own Rules
Rock Springs is not alone. In Riverton, council members have debated speed limits, age restrictions and helmets, and the council approved ordinances regulating bicycles, e-bikes, scooters and other personal devices Tuesday.
Casper has been talking about the problem since spring, with e-bikes, scooters and electric skateboards returning to the council’s agenda in October. Lander has considered banning the devices from sidewalks, requiring helmets for younger riders and imposing fines for reckless riding.
What Parents And Grandparents Can Do Right Now
Whether your town has a new ordinance or not, a few common-sense habits can keep a young rider safer. These are general safety tips, not rules from any one city.
- Check which class of e-bike you are buying. The top speeds differ, and Class 3 models assist at higher speeds, generally up to 28 mph.
- Insist on a helmet every time, even where the law does not require one.
- Walk through the route together. Talk about sidewalks versus streets, which side to ride on, stopping at traffic lights and the hand signals you learned as a kid.
- Ask yourself whether a young child should be riding a bike that can reach 20 mph or more, and set family speed limits accordingly.
- Check your local ordinance, since cities such as Rock Springs, Riverton and others are updating theirs.
As the mayor put it, e-bikes are not going away. They are getting faster, more accessible and more common on the streets and sidewalks where children play, pedestrians walk and drivers pass, and the freedom to ride comes with risks that no ordinance can completely erase.
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