Pinellas County Schools is moving to regulate electric bikes and scooters on campus, becoming one of the first major local entities in the Tampa Bay area to establish its own micromobility rules after Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed a statewide e-bike safety bill.
The policy comes as e-bike use continues to climb among students, and after Pinellas County recorded more e-bike fatalities than any other county in the Tampa Bay region over the past five years.
During a recent School Board meeting, Director of Strategic Planning and Policy Leanna Ison outlined revisions to the district’s Code of Student Conduct.
“Policy 5500.09 adds rules for electric transportation, which is e-bikes, e-scooters,” Ison told board members. “The new rules include definitions, storage requirements and safety expectations aligned with state law.”
The district has not yet released the full policy language. Still, officials say it establishes expectations for students who ride electric bikes and scooters to school while clarifying where the devices may be stored on campus.
The move comes just weeks after DeSantis vetoed Senate Bill 382, legislation that would have established Florida’s first statewide e-bike safety standards.
The bill passed both chambers of the Legislature unanimously. Among its provisions, riders would have been required to slow to 10 mph when traveling within 50 feet of pedestrians on sidewalks and shared-use paths, yield to pedestrians and provide an audible signal before passing.
The legislation also would have created a Micromobility Device Safety Task Force within the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to study crashes involving e-bikes and e-scooters while standardizing crash reporting across the state.
In his veto message, however, DeSantis said many of those decisions should remain with local governments rather than Tallahassee. He also criticized the proposed speed restrictions as impractical and argued the bill could encourage greater government surveillance through enforcement technology.
That veto effectively left cities, counties and public agencies responsible for setting many of their own expectations surrounding micromobility.
Pinellas County Schools is now doing just that; the district has already begun educating students and families about riding safely.
In a safety advisory posted on its website, the district notes that “while these devices are fun and convenient, they move fast and require extra caution,” and encourages students to obey traffic laws, wear helmets, remain alert around vehicles and pedestrians and avoid distracted riding.
The issue has taken on greater urgency locally. As previously reported, 18 people riding e-bikes have been killed in Pinellas County over the past five years. Across the Tampa Bay region, 28 e-bike fatalities were recorded during that same period, making Pinellas the deadliest county in the region for e-bike crashes.
Among those pushing lawmakers to strengthen the legislation was Michelle Lynch, whose son, Connor Lynch, was killed near the University of South Florida in 2024 while riding an electric scooter. Lynch urged lawmakers to include e-scooters alongside e-bikes and adopt stronger safety standards, but the bill ultimately died with the governor’s veto.
The district’s policy does not attempt to replace state law. Instead, it establishes campus-specific rules governing how students may bring, store and operate electric transportation devices on school property.
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