Electric bikes must now be registered with GRA – Police

After years of concerns being expressed over persons, including minors, using electric bikes on Guyana’s roadways, owners of electric bikes now face a requirement of having to be registered with the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).
This announcement was made on Friday by the Guyana Police Force, and was later confirmed by Traffic Chief Dennis Stephens.
“…persons below the age of 16 are advised to desist (from) riding these bikes, while those who are above 16 and ride them must have a valid motorcycle licence”, the requirement stipulates.

In a subsequent interview with Guyana Times, Stephens confirmed that the Police had wanted to get this issue under control and had continued to pursue the GRA.
“We would have pushed to have those cycles registered immediately. The reason for that is because, over last year, over 7 persons would have lost their lives using this cycle, and 13 persons were injured,” Stephens explained.
“The law is clear as it relates to the age range of persons riding motorcycles, and we believe that if persons started to register those cycles, we would be able to ease most of the persons with lack of knowledge on their part…,” he continued.
For the year thus far, one user of the electric bike lost their life along the East Coast of Demerara public road. Prior to that, electrical bikes were not registered by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), thus leaving their operation unchecked. As such, the GPF was engaging the GRA and the Legal Affairs Ministry to seek advice on what could be done about the usage of electric bikes in Guyana, he elaborated.
It has also been learnt that, apart from the cycles not being registered, they have no insurance or fitness.
In March of last year, former Police Commissioner(ag) Nigel Hoppie announced that the GPF and the GRA were in discussion on regularising the use of electric bikes on the country’s roadways. This was after concerns were raised over the usage of e-bikes, especially by young children, many of whom do not know traffic rules and laws.
The use of e-bikes after their introduction onto the country’s roadways has received major backlash from many members of local law enforcement. Assistant Superintendent Raun Clark, Officer-in-Charge of Traffic in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), in November of 2021, slammed the use of e-bikes on public roadways.
Clark had said there was no law the Traffic Department could enforce against the users of those cycles, and he had raised concerns over the lack of an age limit for their use.
Similarly, earlier this year, Divisional Traffic Officer of Division 4A – (Georgetown), Deputy Superintendent Timothy Williams, contended that the use of e-bikes would require the creation of policies that would need to be strongly reinforced to cater to those citizens who traverse the roadways with the controversial e-bike.