Reading the Houston city council discussion, it looks like they intend to curfew standup (platform) e-scooters. But the ordinance uses the term “micromobility device”, which is not really a legal definition of anything, and could include lots of things (even 50cc scooters). Hopefully the ordinance could be amended to clarify.
Since the vast majority of these will be app-rented e-scooters (ERYD/Lime), and those companies already operate under franchise agreements with the city, it seems like the easier path would be to put hours-of-operation limits on the rental companies.
Not that I think limiting e-scooters is a good idea, either.
They need to enforce where they can ride. The sidwalk going 30mph is not the correct answer.
The city’s enforcement data from 2021-25 shows 129 scooters seized, 74 impounded, 53 vendor warnings, 13 vendor citations, 3,016 rider warnings, 51 rider citations, five guns seized and eight arrests. No deaths were reflected in the city’s data. Meanwhile, Houston last year recorded its deadliest year on record for vehicle drivers, passengers and pedestrians, with 345 people killed on Houston-area streets, a record high after two years of declines.
over 300 people died last year because of car accidents vs 0 from e-bikes and scooters in the past 4 years and you’re gonna put a curfew on the e-bikes???
Cars are a lost cause but maybe we can keep those e-bike deaths at 0 by banning them /s
“One death is too many!”
The second death:
“Fuckit. Whatever. It’s hopeless.”
Man, wait until this mayor finds out about how many people get killed by cars between 8pm and 4am
Bikes are too much freedom, so they are woke.
Sound the alarm - we need to broadcast a dumb motherfucker alert
I wonder if there’s a racial or class component here. Can’t have the poors or the DEIs getting around. /s
I don’t know what it’s like in Houston and I know it’s known for being car centric but where I live the Uber eats / door dash / whatever economy basically runs on those ebikes.
You can also guess the type of person riding them.
This has to be the dumbest elected leadership seeking approval from the dumbest in society.
making people wear helmets and giving them protected bike lanes would be a way better solution
I don’t know what it’s like in Houston but here in Toronto the entire food delivery industry would pretty much come to a stand still without e-bikes. do they kill people? no. are they dangerous? I’m sorry but with the way some of those dudes drive those things on sidewalks and the amount of times i’ve seen them hit people…yeah. We’ve also had a few literally blow up on commuter trains to the point where we out right banned them on trains.
There’s more to this that I don’t think people realize. no they don’t kill people but yes they do cause accidents because of the people driving them and feeling like they can ride them on sidewalks or…you know…the batteries will randomly explode.
Isn’t that more of a problem with delivery services though? We don’t have e-bikes here. Delivery drivers ride motorcycles. They still ride on sidewalks, filter between everything and run red lights. From what I understand this happens in places that use normal bikes too. Banning e-bikes will only help with the battery issue.
Iowa just tried to pass a bill that would ban all bicycles - not just e-bikes - from any road that has a speed limit over 25 mph (public response was loud and immediate so they scrapped it).
We’re going to see more of these.
Just to help show how stupid of an idea it is (and how little the republicans in charge think about anything) it would have banned ragbrai.
RAGBRAI, The Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, is an annual seven-day bicycle ride across the state from July 18-25, 2026. RAGBRAI is the oldest, largest, and longest recreational bicycle touring event in the world.
This rolling celebration of Iowa attracts participants from all 50 states and many foreign countries. It has covered thousands of miles through the years, and hundreds of thousands of riders have hopped in the saddle to pedal part of those miles.
Fortunately, the ragbrai issue really helped boost visibility/outage, but yeah. I can’t help but wonder if the people who penned this thing knew that going in, or are truly so incompetent they didn’t consider it as a consequence.
If there was an extensive bike network instead of John Forster bullshit vehicular cycling, it would make a lot of sense.
But Iowa doesn’t have bicycle infrastructure.
My city alone has over 150 miles of bike trail. Compared to other rural US states (it’s an admittedly low bar) our bike infrastructure is actually pretty good, and the statewide biking community is extremely involved and active. It’s one of the few things keeping me here.
Given how many lanes Houston’s highways already have I’m starting to wonder if the cars are the ones in charge there.
Yeah, remember all those people killed in that e-bike ramming attack in, was it the Netherlands?
This is just another excuse for cops to fine/arrest/oppress people. Utter bullshit.
Does this include all types of mobility devices like the one below?
