Twenty-eight people have died while riding e-bikes in the Tampa Bay region over the past five years. Eighteen of those fatalities occurred in Pinellas County, making it the deadliest county in the region for e-bike crashes.

Those statistics helped propel a statewide safety bill through the Florida Legislature with unanimous support.

Last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed it.

Senate Bill 382, and its companion House Bill 243, would have required e-bike riders traveling on sidewalks and other pedestrian-designated areas to slow to 10 miles per hour whenever they came within 50 feet of a pedestrian. Riders would also have been required to yield to pedestrians on shared pathways and provide an audible signal before passing. Violations would have been treated as noncriminal traffic infractions.

The legislation also would have created a nine-member Micromobility Device Safety Task Force, under the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, to study e-bike and e-scooter safety and recommend future statewide regulations.

In addition, it would have required law enforcement agencies to begin collecting standardized crash data involving micromobility devices, creating what supporters viewed as a more complete picture of where and why serious crashes occur.

The measure passed the House 112-0 before reaching the governor’s desk. DeSantis, however, argued the legislation amounted to unnecessary government intervention.

Among his objections was the requirement that riders slow to 10 mph within 50 feet of pedestrians. According to the governor, it would be unrealistic for riders to accurately judge both their speed and their distance from pedestrians while safely operating an e-bike.

He also argued the bill’s enforcement mechanism could encourage local governments to rely more heavily on speed-detection technology and surveillance cameras to issue citations.

DeSantis further questioned the need to create a Micromobility Device Safety Task Force while simultaneously imposing new statewide regulations before that body had an opportunity to study the issue and make recommendations.

Instead, the governor said cities and counties should retain the flexibility to establish their own safety measures, including speed limits, helmet requirements and age restrictions.

That local-control approach leaves intact the patchwork of regulations that currently exists across Florida.

When the Legislature was considering the bill earlier this year, advocates argued that varying local rules have created confusion for riders, particularly as e-bikes and e-scooters become more common forms of transportation.

One of those advocates was Michelle Lynch, whose son, Connor Lynch, was killed near the University of South Florida in 2024 while riding an electric scooter.

Lynch traveled to Tallahassee during the 2026 legislative session to urge lawmakers to strengthen the proposal and include e-scooters alongside e-bikes.

“The bill itself has been watered down to study micromobility with a task force,” Lynch previously told Poliverse after testifying before lawmakers.

Connor’s death highlighted one of the recurring challenges surrounding Florida’s current regulations. Depending on local ordinances, where riders are legally expected to operate can change from one community to another.

Since her son’s death, Lynch has partnered with Tampa General Hospital’s trauma center, the Florida Department of Transportation and AAA to promote micromobility safety while establishing a scholarship in Connor’s name at USF.

Although the legislation ultimately never became law, lawmakers acknowledged during committee hearings that the growing number of crashes demanded greater attention.

The bill’s official analysis noted that Florida currently has no statewide task force dedicated to reducing injuries and fatalities involving micromobility devices. It also would have required local police departments, sheriff’s offices and the Florida Highway Patrol to submit standardized crash reports to the state, including the rider’s age and, when applicable, the class of e-bike involved.

For now, those changes will not take effect. Instead, regulation of e-bikes will remain largely in the hands of local governments.