SB 1782 - HB 1712 E-Bike Legislation in Tennessee General Assembly
carey...@comcast.net
There’s a bill in the legislature that could ban e-bikes so I’m sounding the alarm.
I am writing to everyone who has shown an interest in these bills (or should be interested). This was done rather quickly so excuse the crude exposition.
Here’s the situation as of 20 February 2026.
SB 1782 – HB 1712 was introduced by two representatives from Williamson County, Senator Jack Johnson and Representative Lee Reeves. The amended bill would allow local governments to ban class 1 and class 2 e-bikes and does ban class 3 unless a local government specifically allows them. It also raises the age to ride a class 3 to 16 y/o.
The senate bill is now on calendar in the Transportation Committee on February 25. We are attempting to make sure the bill will be deferred but don’t know if we will succeed.
We need to let members of the Senate Transportation Committee know we oppose the bill and it should be deferred until we can have more discussions (next year is good).
If you are from Williamson County (or know someone) call Senator Johnson and Representative Reeves to voice your opposition to the bills. They claim this is coming from Franklin City government.
If your Senator is on the Senate Transportation Committee call and ask them to oppose the bill and request that the sponsor defer the bill.
If you or your organization use a lobbyist please have them convey your concern to the sponsors and the chair of the Senate Transportation Committee. We have advocates who are requesting that the chair defer the bill.
Bike Walk Tennessee and Walk Bike Nashville are aware and oppose the bill.
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or ideas. Forward to anyone who should know about this.
Carey Rogers
carey...@comcast.net
It does ban class 3 but allows local governments to override the ban. I think we could pass that in Nashville but they might not in Franklin.
Yes the ban is very superfluous because the people doing this don’t have a damn clue and don’t care.
I don’t think there is any way to enforce it except to harass bike riders on a periodic basis and they still won’t know one class from another.
All this because a few kids are riding e-bikes, or electric motorcycles, and pissing off the city elders of Franklin. If they’re breaking traffic laws arrest them and their parents.
This makes the people who wanted to ban e-bikes from Nashville greenways look like pikers.
Carey
From: whogastim <whog...@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, February 20, 2026 9:42 PM
To: carey...@comcast.net
Cc: walking-and-bik...@googlegroups.com; Nashville E-Bike Group <nashvil...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: SB 1782 - HB 1712 E-Bike Legislation in Tennessee General Assembly
I own and regularly ride a Class 3 e—bike. It appears the bill bans Class 3 e-bikes throughout all of Tennessee. Is this correct? What would be the penalty for someone riding a Class 3?
The bill raises the age to ride a Class 3 to 16, but if Class 3 e-bikes are banned, what is the point of raising the age.
Does the bill require an owner of a Class 3 to identify it as such? If you can’t determine whether an e-bike is Class 1 or Class 3 by looking at them, the ban is superfluous.
If the only way to determine whether an e-bike is Class 3 is by clocking it at a speed above 20 mph, does the bill ban all bicycles (e-bike or not) from traveling faster than 20 mph?
Curious minds want to know.
Tim
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On Feb 20, 2026, at 9:16 PM, careyrogers via Nashville E-Bike Group <nashvil...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
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carey rogers
This bill passed the Senate Transportation Committee Wednesday, February 25, 2026 with only one no vote, and will move quickly to the Senate floor and will probably pass in the House in the next few weeks.
There is no point in continuing to contest it in the General Assembly (unless you know something I don’t) because we don’t have a state organization with any clout or a lobbyist. The super majority does not care about bicycle riders.
The bill allows cities to ban class 1 and 2 e-bikes. I don’t think the Metro Council would do that. We will have to pass legislation to allow class 3 e-bikes in Metro. That should be doable but sometimes people with no knowledge of e-bikes get hung up on the 28 MPH thing. I don’t know many people that can actually pedal that hard, certainly not us old coots.
Disappointing but not surprising.
Video when the deed was done.
https://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/apps/BillInfo/Default?BillNumber=SB1782
Carey
SB 1782 – HB 1712 was introduced by two representatives from Williamson County, Senator Jack Johnson and Representative Lee Reeves. The amended bill would allow local governments to ban class 1 and class 2 e-bikes and does ban class 3 unless a local government specifically allows them. It also raises the age to ride a class 3 to 16 y/o.