The Everett City Council has approved an ordinance setting new rules for how electric bikes, scooters, and other powered devices can be used in the city, according to a July 29, 2026 report by Joel Moreno for KOMO News. Separately, and this is a different city with a different action, KOMO reports that Kirkland police are stepping up enforcement against unsafe riding and against machines that do not meet Washington’s legal definition of an e-bike.
Those two things get blurred together easily, so keep them apart. Everett changed its written rules. Kirkland changed how hard it is looking. Washington state law, which sits underneath both, did not change in this reporting at all.
If you ride in Everett, the practical questions are narrow: whether your machine can go faster than 20 mph, whether you or your kid is under 16, and whether you were planning to ride on a downtown sidewalk. KOMO’s reporting answers all three.
What Everett’s Ordinance Does, According to KOMO
The dividing line in the new Everett rules is 20 mph, and it is a capability test rather than a test of how fast you were actually going.
Per KOMO, powered devices capable of traveling less than 20 mph may generally operate anywhere traditional bicycles are allowed in Everett, which the report describes as including bike lanes, roadways, certain parks, and shared-use paths. Class 3 e-bikes, which provide pedal assistance up to 28 mph under Washington law, are limited to roadways, parking lots, and private property.
That second sentence is the expensive one for commuters. If you bought a Class 3 for the speed, KOMO’s description of the ordinance says the shared-use paths and parks are off the table for it in Everett, and you are riding in traffic.
KOMO also reports the ordinance bans all powered bikes and scooters from sidewalks in much of downtown Everett. Note the scope word: much of downtown, not all of the city, and the report does not map the boundary. That is a question for the city.
The helmet rules go by age and by class
Everett’s ordinance adds age-specific helmet requirements, per KOMO, and they do not work the way a blanket helmet law would.
Riders younger than 16 must wear a helmet when using Class 1 or Class 2 e-bikes. Children younger than 11 must wear helmets and be accompanied by an adult. Riders 16 and older must wear helmets only when operating Class 3 e-bikes or other powered devices capable of traveling more than 20 mph.
So an adult on a Class 1 commuter is, by KOMO’s description of the ordinance, not required by this rule to wear one. We would still say wear it, and that is our opinion rather than anything in the reporting.
What a Violation Costs
KOMO reports that violating the ordinance carries a $50 civil infraction for a first offense, rising to $150 for repeat violations. Riders who recklessly endanger others could face misdemeanor charges.
The part parents should read twice: KOMO reports that parents or guardians may also be held responsible if they knowingly allow children younger than 16 to violate the rules. That shifts the buying decision. A machine handed to a 14-year-old is no longer only the kid’s problem when it gets ridden on a downtown sidewalk without a helmet.
Treat the dollar figures as a snapshot from July 29, 2026 rather than a permanent schedule. Fine amounts and enforcement practice change without a news story announcing it.
Kirkland Is a Separate Story
Kirkland is a different Washington city, and nothing in KOMO’s report says it passed an ordinance. What the report describes there is an enforcement posture: police expanding efforts around unsafe riding behaviors and around electric motorcycles that fall outside Washington’s e-bike laws, plus additional community education and outreach.
That second target is the one worth understanding, because it is the same problem showing up in city after city. A machine sold as an electric bike is not automatically an e-bike in the eyes of a statute, and once it falls outside the definition, the access and the treatment that come with being a bicycle stop applying to it. Our guide on why an e-moto may not be an e-bike covers how that gap opens up.
The Injury Numbers Behind the Rules
KOMO reports that Everett now has the fifth-highest rate of e-bike hospitalizations and the third-highest rate of electric scooter hospitalizations among cities in Washington, citing a city council memo. Statewide, per the same report, 149 people were hospitalized with e-bike-related injuries last year, and the rate of injury jumped 483% between 2020 and 2024.
We did not read that council memo, and KOMO does not detail the methodology behind the state figures, so read them as the justification the city cited rather than as an independently verified statistic. KOMO attributes the broader rise to growth in both private ownership and shared rental programs, naming Lime, which the report says operates an e-scooter service in Everett.
Washington’s three-class framework is the substrate under all of it. Per KOMO’s summary of state law, Class 1 provides pedal assistance up to 20 mph, Class 2 can be propelled by the motor without pedaling up to 20 mph, and Class 3 provides pedal assistance up to 28 mph with additional restrictions. KOMO also reports that state law already prohibits Class 3 e-bikes from sidewalks and bars riders younger than 16 from using them, which means part of what applies in Everett was already true statewide. Our e-bike classes explainer covers what those labels do and do not promise, and the e-bike laws by state guide is a starting point for how much frameworks vary.
These questions are not new in Washington. Our earlier coverage of the Colonnade crash in Seattle walked through the state-level review of e-bike rules that was underway then. Everett’s ordinance is one city’s answer to it, and Kirkland’s is another. Checking once is not the same as knowing.
Sources
- “Everett tightens e-bike and scooter rules as injuries climb, Kirkland steps up enforcement” (KOMO, Joel Moreno, published July 29, 2026, updated July 29, 2026): sole source for the Everett City Council ordinance and its contents, the sub-20 mph access provision, the Class 3 restriction to roadways, parking lots, and private property, the downtown sidewalk ban, the age-based helmet requirements, the $50 and $150 infraction amounts, the misdemeanor and parental responsibility provisions, Kirkland’s expanded enforcement and outreach, the Everett hospitalization rankings attributed to a city council memo, the statewide figure of 149 e-bike-related hospitalizations last year and the 483% rise between 2020 and 2024, the reference to Lime operating an e-scooter service in Everett, and the summary of Washington’s three e-bike classes including the existing statewide Class 3 sidewalk and under-16 restrictions. Verified against the article’s own NewsArticle metadata on July 30, 2026. We did not reproduce extended quotations from this report.
- We did not read the Everett ordinance text, the city council memo, or the Washington statutes directly for this article. Every legal, numerical, and enforcement claim above is a summary of KOMO’s reporting and should be confirmed with the City of Everett, the Kirkland Police Department, or Washington state before you rely on it.
- Hero image: File:Everett, Washington.jpg by Quintin Soloviev, licensed CC BY 4.0. The original is an aerial view of downtown Everett, Washington. RoostMode modified it: center-cropped to 16:9, resized to 1600x900, and optimized to WebP. It is a general view of the city and does not depict any event described in this article.
