E-bikes were a godsend during the pandemic, serving as a way to get around when public transportation options were severely limited. But what was then a boon to the riding public is quickly becoming a major liability, with 3-wheeled e-bikes clogging roads, going on national highways where they don’t belong, riding up expressways as well as blocking emergency vehicles on roads. You just have to take a look at Visor’s page to see just how reckless e-bike drivers (specifically people riding 3-wheeled variants) are on the road, which makes people ask: should we start requiring anyone who wants an e-bike to have a license and registration?

It makes sense to start asking this question given our current motoring climate, and before you start typing down in the comments section, yes, I am aware there’s already a license requirement for e-bikes, but that’s for the ones that can go 50 KPH and up. The e-bikes that are fast becoming a menace on the roads are the three-wheeled models that are the most pervasive on the street. These e-bikes usually go viral for the wrong reasons: running red lights, staying on the fast lane, blocking emergency vehicles, and just plain driving dangerously.

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It’s easy to blame e-bike drivers for all of the bad behavior we see online, but one major cause of the horrible driving we see can be attributed to a lack of knowledge of road rules and etiquette. And while we have to acknowledge how tremendously bad our licensing process here is (just take a look at the sheer amount of kamotes on the road, both on two and four wheels), at least there’s still a semblance of driving education being done before you’re given a license.

That’s not something that you learn if you get an e-bike – advertising for the majority of the brands of e-bike vehicles list not needing a license or registration as the main selling point of their products.

So, maybe it’s time to legislate that an e-bike needs a license and registration to use and own just like motorcycles. The Land Transportation Office (LTO) is now eyeing mandatory registration of e-bikes regardless of vehicle capacity or speed before they can use public roads, something that I thoroughly support after experiencing first-hand what the chaos of unregulated e-bikes is causing on our streets. And honestly, maybe it’s time to think about scrapping LTO Administrative Order 2021-035, which states that EVs with a maximum speed of less than 25 kilometers are not required to register with the LTO. Registration means more government red tape, but at least car and motorcycle owners can get compensation if they get into an accident with one instead of the e-bike owner just scratching their head and driving away like they normally do. And if that’s not possible, then it’s time for the LGUs to step up and start enforcing the restrictions on the use of these vehicles as soon as possible. Because it’s only a matter of time until one of these things gets into a major accident, and I can guarantee you that the result won’t be pretty.