E-Bike ER Visits Are Up 760%. Here's What the Study Actually Counted

If you were online this week, you saw the number: e-bike ER visits up 760% since 2023. The New York Post, FOX 5 New York and a string of local stations ran it, often with a second number for kids.

Both numbers come from a study Truveta published on Oct. 12. Truveta is a health data company that works from de-identified electronic health records from major U.S. health systems. The headlines skip most of what the study says, and the skipped parts matter if you ride or you're raising someone who does.

What Truveta measured

Researchers pulled emergency department visits with diagnosis codes for an e-bike or a regular bicycle from January 2023 through August 2026. Because the data ended in August, they compared only January through August in each year, so summer riding didn't skew the comparison.

• The e-bike visit rate went from 1.2 to 10.1 per 100,000 people with an ER visit. That's the 760% (760.2%, to be exact).
• The regular bike rate barely moved: 59.4 to 64.1 per 100,000, up 7.9%.
• For patients under 18, the e-bike rate went from 1.9 to 35.7 per 100,000, which Truveta reports as a 19.1-fold increase. Regular bikes rose about 1.5-fold for the same age group.
• Adults rose too: 7.7-fold for ages 18 to 24, 7.4-fold for 25 to 44, 7.6-fold for 45 to 64 and 3.2-fold for 65 and older.

What the headlines left out

Regular bikes still put far more people in the ER. Across the whole study Truveta counted 63,811 bicycle visits and 4,769 e-bike visits, roughly 13 to 1.

The rate is per 100,000 ER patients, not per rider or per mile. It shows e-bike crashes are a bigger slice of what ERs see. It can't show whether any single ride got riskier. Truveta's own limitations section says the comparison was descriptive and didn't adjust for differences in riding frequency, speed, helmet use or crash circumstances. It also notes that e-bike specific diagnosis codes only became available in October 2022, so part of the rise may be better record keeping as clinicians got used to them. The findings are preliminary and not peer reviewed.

Then there's the e-moto problem. A Truveta spokesperson told Bicycle Retailer that "the distinction between e-bikes and e-motos typically isn't captured in emergency department records." A Class 1, 2 or 3 e-bike has working pedals and tops out at 20 or 28 mph of assisted speed. Many of the machines kids now call "e-bikes" are e-motos that can go faster than 28 mph. Hospital records don't separate the two, so the 760% likely includes crashes on machines the law doesn't treat as e-bikes at all. We covered how that line gets drawn in our Hawaii e-moto ban explainer.

What the injuries look like

Mostly like bike injuries. Bruises and scrapes were the top diagnosis (35.0% of e-bike visits, 39.9% of bike visits). Fractures came next and were a little more common on e-bikes (28.3% vs. 25.1%). Head and neck injuries made up about a third of visits for both, and were slightly less common on e-bikes (31.7% vs. 34.9%). Overall brain injury rates were nearly identical (5.8% vs. 5.6%).

Kids are the exception. Among patients under 18, a traumatic brain injury showed up in 7.8% of e-bike visits compared with 6.0% of regular bike visits. In adults the gap shrinks, and for riders 45 and older it flips. Truveta's write-up also cites earlier research that found only about 31% of injured e-bike riders were wearing a helmet.

Why it's landing now

The study hit during a busy stretch for e-bike rules. In early October, California's governor signed three e-bike laws, including a San Mateo County pilot that can bar kids under 12 from lower-speed e-bikes and a 10 mph default sidewalk limit starting Jan. 1, 2027 (CalMatters). San Diego police could start citing riders under 12 on Oct. 13, with a $25 fine (our explainer).

Expect to hear "760%" at the next city council meeting near you. It helps to know what's behind it.

What riders and parents can do

• Check what you actually own. A legal e-bike has working pedals and a class rating. If it has no pedals or goes faster than 28 mph, it's likely an e-moto, and e-bike rules may not cover it. Our motor label guide walks through it.
• Helmet on every ride, especially for kids and teens. Brain injuries in riders under 18 are where the study's e-bike numbers looked worst.
• Match the bike to the rider. 28 mph on a Class 3 is a lot for a young teen. California and Tennessee both set 16 as the minimum age for Class 3.
• Know your local rules. Age limits, sidewalk bans and speed caps now vary by state and city. Start with our state-by-state e-bike law guide and our look at 15 mph trail limits vs. Class 3 bans.
• Buy from a shop that will fit and service it. A local dealer can confirm the class, help pick the right bike for a young rider and keep the brakes in shape.

So, are e-bikes getting more dangerous?

The 760% is a real increase in a real dataset, and the 19-fold jump in kids' ER visits deserves attention. It isn't proof that riding an e-bike got riskier per ride since 2023, and it likely counts e-motos the law doesn't call e-bikes. The next useful study will measure who's riding what, and how many miles.

Sources

• Truveta Research, "E-bike injuries increased at a rate 100 times greater than traditional bicycle injuries through summer 2026," Oct. 12, 2026
• Bicycle Retailer and Industry News, Oct. 21, 2026
• CalMatters, Oct. 9, 2026

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