Are Electric Scooters Legal in Massachusetts?

Yes, electric scooters are legal to ride in Massachusetts, but the statute that governs them, M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 1E, imposes conditions that almost no rider in the Commonwealth actually meets. You need a valid driver’s license or learner’s permit. You may not exceed 20 miles per hour. You must wear a helmet regardless of your age. You may not carry a passenger. The scooter must be equipped with working stop and turn signals. And you may not ride at all after sunset or before sunrise. Riding legally is possible; riding legally on a stock consumer scooter, at night, without a license, is not. The fines are small, capped at $25 for a first violation, but the fines are not the real exposure. The real exposure is that a violation of sec. 1E can be raised as evidence of negligence in a civil claim, and unlike the bicycle helmet law and the child restraint law, the motorized scooter statute contains no provision protecting a rider from having that used against them. This article walks through every requirement in the statute, the sidewalk question the statute does not answer, and what happens to an injury claim when a scooter rider is hit by a car.

What Massachusetts Law Counts as a “Motorized Scooter”

The definition sits in M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 1, and it is broad. A motorized scooter is any 2 wheeled tandem or 3 wheeled device, that has handlebars, designed to be stood or sat upon by the operator, powered by an electric or gas powered motor that is capable of propelling the device with or without human propulsion.

Read that carefully, because the breadth is the point. Handlebars, two or three wheels, a motor, meant to be stood on or sat on. That captures the stand-up electric scooter someone buys online, the shared rental scooter left on a sidewalk, the gas-powered stand-up scooters sold as toys, and a good deal of the micromobility equipment that has appeared on Massachusetts streets since the statute was written. The phrase with or without human propulsion closes the obvious loophole: a device does not escape the definition because you can also kick it along.

What it does not capture is listed in the same section. The definition of motorized scooter shall not include a motorcycle, electric bicycle or motorized bicycle or a 3 wheeled motorized wheelchair. A motorized bicycle is defined separately as a pedal bicycle which has a helper motor, or a non-pedal bicycle which has a motor, with a cylinder capacity not exceeding fifty cubic centimeters, an automatic transmission, and which is capable of a maximum speed of no more than thirty miles per hour, and that definition carries a proviso of its own excluding electric bicycles from it as well. Motorized bicycles are registered, plated, and governed by a different set of rules.

The electric bicycle is a third and separate category, defined in the same section as a bicycle or tricycle equipped with fully operable pedals and an electric motor of 750 watts or less that meets the requirements of a class 1 electric bicycle or a class 2 electric bicycle. That distinction matters more than it looks. A pedal-assist e-bike inside those limits is expressly outside the motorized scooter definition and outside the motorized bicycle definition, so none of the sec. 1E rules below apply to it. If your device has pedals and a helper motor above those limits, you are probably in the motorized bicycle category, not the scooter category, and the requirements are different again. If it has handlebars and a deck you stand on, you are in sec. 1E.

An ordinary pedal bicycle with no motor at all is governed by M.G.L. c. 85, sec. 11B, which is a materially friendlier statute for the rider. The Massachusetts bicycle laws article covers that framework in full. The gap between the two is where most of the trouble in this area lives.

The Seven Rules in M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 1E

The whole operative statute is short. Here is what it actually requires.

A license or learner’s permit. The section opens by stating that a motorized scooter shall not be operated on any way by a person not possessing a valid driver’s license or learner’s permit, and the same sentence runs straight on into the speed cap below. There is no minimum age written into the section, but the license requirement functions as one. In practice this means a 14-year-old on an electric scooter on a public street is operating unlawfully, and so is an adult who never got a license or whose license is suspended.

A 20 mile per hour ceiling. The same sentence bars operation at a speed in excess of 20 miles per hour. This is a cap on the scooter, not a permission slip. Where the posted limit is lower, the posted limit governs, because the statute also makes riders subject to all traffic laws and regulations of the commonwealth and to the regulations contained in sec. 1E itself. Plenty of consumer scooters sold today are capable of 25 to 30 miles per hour out of the box.

Access to public ways, with one exclusion. A scooter operator shall have the right to use all public ways in the commonwealth except limited access or express state highways where signs specifically prohibiting scooters or bicycles have been posted. The exclusion is narrower than people assume. It is not every highway. It is limited access or express state highways where the signs have actually been posted. On ordinary streets, including busy arterial roads, the scooter has a statutory right to be there.

Keep right, always. The statute carves out two rules that differ from ordinary traffic law. The first: a scooter operator shall keep to the right side of the road at all times, including when passing a motor vehicle which is moving in the travel lane of the way. That last clause is unusual. A cyclist may move left to pass. A scooter rider, by statute, may not.

Working stop and turn signals. The second carve-out: the scooter shall be equipped with operational stop and turn signals so that the operator can keep both hands on the handlebars at all times. This is the requirement almost nobody satisfies. The overwhelming majority of scooters sold to consumers in Massachusetts, and a large share of the shared rental fleet, do not have turn signals at all. A rider who hand-signals a turn is, under the plain words of the statute, both violating the equipment requirement and taking a hand off the handlebars that the statute says should stay there.

No riding between sunset and sunrise. No person shall operate a motor scooter upon any way at any time after sunset or before sunrise. There is no lighting exception. There is no headlight-and-taillight workaround as there is for bicycles. In Massachusetts in December, sunset falls before 4:30 in the afternoon, which makes an ordinary evening commute on a scooter unlawful for months at a stretch.

A helmet, at every age. A person operating a motorized scooter shall wear protective headgear conforming with such minimum standards of construction and performance as the registrar may prescribe. Note the difference from bicycles, where the helmet mandate in c. 85, sec. 11B reaches only riders 16 and under. On a motorized scooter the helmet requirement applies to a 45-year-old the same way it applies to a 15-year-old.

No passengers. No person operating a motorized scooter shall permit any other person to ride as a passenger on the scooter. Two people on one deck is a violation, every time.

The penalty for any of it is a fine of not more than $25 for the first violation, not less than $25 nor more than $50 for a second violation and not less than $50 nor more than $100 for a third or subsequent violation. Those are traffic-ticket numbers. They are not the reason to care.

Answer Capsule

Electric scooters are legal in Massachusetts under M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 1E, but only under conditions most riders do not meet: a valid driver’s license or learner’s permit, a 20 mile per hour maximum, a helmet at any age, no passenger, working stop and turn signals on the scooter, keeping to the right at all times including when passing, and no riding after sunset or before sunrise. Scooters may use all public ways except limited access or express state highways where signs prohibiting scooters or bicycles are posted. The statute says nothing about sidewalks, so sidewalk riding is controlled by local ordinance and varies by city and town. Violations carry fines of $25 to $100. The larger consequence is civil: sec. 1E contains no clause barring a rider’s violation from being used as evidence of contributory negligence, which is protection that Massachusetts bicycle riders have under c. 85, sec. 11B and that child passengers have under c. 90, sec. 7AA. A scooter rider injured by a driver can still recover under M.G.L. c. 231, sec. 85 unless found more than 50 percent at fault, and generally has three years to file under M.G.L. c. 260, sec. 2A. Call Jim Glaser Law at (617) JIM-WINS; the first telephone consultation is free.

The Sidewalk Question the Statute Does Not Answer

The single most common question about electric scooters in Massachusetts is whether you can ride one on the sidewalk. The honest answer is that M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 1E does not address sidewalks at all. It grants a right to use public ways, it excludes signed limited access highways, and it stops there.

That silence matters, because it is a deliberate contrast with the bicycle statute. M.G.L. c. 85, sec. 11B expressly permits bicycle riding on sidewalks outside business districts when necessary in the interest of safety, and expressly allows a city or town to regulate or prohibit it. Cyclists therefore have a default statewide rule they can point to. Scooter riders do not.

What fills the gap is local ordinance. Massachusetts cities and towns have general authority to regulate the use of their sidewalks, and many have adopted rules addressing scooters directly, particularly the communities that hosted shared-scooter pilot programs. The result is that sidewalk riding can be permitted on one side of a municipal line and ticketable on the other, and the only reliable way to know is to read the ordinance for the specific city or town.

The practical guidance is simple. Do not assume the sidewalk is safe ground legally, and do not assume it is safe ground physically either. A sidewalk collision with a pedestrian puts the scooter rider on the wrong side of a negligence claim rather than the right side of one.

The Part That Actually Costs Money: No Contributory-Negligence Shield

This is the most consequential thing in Massachusetts scooter law, and it is invisible unless you compare statutes side by side.

When the Legislature required bicycle helmets for riders 16 and under, it added a specific sentence to c. 85, sec. 11B: A violation of clause (ii) or (iii) shall not be used as evidence of contributory negligence in any civil action. Clause (iii) is the helmet clause. So a Massachusetts cyclist who was hit by a car while riding bare-headed cannot have that fact used to reduce their recovery. The Massachusetts bicycle laws article covers how insurers still try.

The Legislature did the same thing for child restraints. M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 7AA requires a child passenger restraint for a passenger under 8 and a safety belt for a passenger under 13, and then adds the same shield: A violation of this section shall not be used as evidence of contributory negligence in any civil action. The adult seat belt requirement in M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 13A carries no equivalent sentence, and the Supreme Judicial Court has expressly left the question open, saying in Shahzade v. C.J. Mabardy, Inc., 411 Mass. 788 (1992), that on that record it need not address whether Massachusetts courts should recognize the so-called seat belt defense. The seatbelt defense article covers how that argument is made.

M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 1E contains no comparable sentence. None. The statute imposes a helmet requirement, a signal requirement, a nighttime prohibition, and a keep-right rule, and it says nothing at all about whether breaking any of them can be argued against the rider in a civil case.

Here is why that is expensive. Massachusetts uses modified comparative negligence under M.G.L. c. 231, sec. 85. An injured person’s damages are reduced in proportion to their own share of fault, and recovery is barred entirely if their negligence is greater than the total negligence of the defendants. That is the 51 percent bar, explained in comparative negligence in Massachusetts.

So picture a rider struck by a left-turning driver at 6:00 pm in November. The driver is plainly negligent. But the rider was operating after sunset, which sec. 1E prohibits, on a scooter with no turn signals, which sec. 1E also requires, and may not have been wearing a helmet. A cyclist in that same collision walks in with a statutory shield on the helmet issue. A scooter rider walks in with three unshielded statutory violations that the defense is free to put in front of a jury as evidence of the rider’s own negligence.

Two clarifications, because this gets overstated in both directions. First, a statutory violation in Massachusetts is evidence of negligence, not automatic liability and not automatic fault. It goes to the jury alongside everything else. Second, a violation only matters if it is causally connected to the injury; riding without a license does not by itself make a rider responsible for another driver’s failure to yield. But “evidence a jury hears” is exactly the leverage an insurer uses in negotiation, and a rider should know it is on the table.

Who Pays When a Scooter Rider Is Hit by a Car

The claim against the at-fault driver runs on the same track as any other Massachusetts motor vehicle injury claim, with one wrinkle at the front end.

The driver’s bodily injury liability coverage is the main source of recovery. Every Massachusetts motor vehicle policy carries compulsory bodily injury coverage, and for policies issued or renewed on or after July 1, 2025 the statutory minimums are not less than $25,000 for injury to one person and not less than $50,000 for injury to more than one person in a single accident. That coverage responds when the driver is at fault.

Personal Injury Protection is where the wrinkle sits. M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 34A defines PIP as covering, among others, any pedestrian struck by the insured’s or obligor’s motor vehicle, up to $8,000, without regard to fault. A scooter rider struck by a car is looking at that pedestrian clause, because their own auto policy’s PIP responds only to injuries involving their own insured vehicle. The statute uses the word “pedestrian” and does not define whether a person standing on a motorized scooter is one. That ambiguity is worth raising at the start of a claim rather than discovering it in a denial letter. The PIP explainer covers how the benefit works, what it pays, and the order of payment.

The tort threshold applies. Because the claim arises out of the use of a motor vehicle, M.G.L. c. 231, sec. 6D limits recovery for pain and suffering unless reasonable medical expenses exceed $2,000 or the injury falls into one of the listed categories, including a fracture, permanent and serious disfigurement, or loss of a body member. The serious injury threshold article walks through each category.

The deadline is generally three years from the date of the crash under M.G.L. c. 260, sec. 2A. Shorter notice periods can apply when a public entity is involved, for instance where a road defect or a municipal vehicle is part of the story. The statute of limitations article covers the exceptions.

If the driver who hit you left the scene or had no insurance, the analysis shifts to uninsured motorist coverage. That is covered in uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage and in what happens when the at-fault driver has no insurance.

Rented Scooters, Shared Fleets, and the Rider Agreement

Shared scooter programs add a layer. When you unlock a rental scooter you accept a rider agreement, and those agreements typically include an assumption-of-risk acknowledgment, a promise to obey local law, and terms addressing liability for injuries. Those documents do not override Massachusetts law, and a contract term cannot make a negligent driver less liable to you. What they can affect is any claim you might have against the scooter company itself, for example over a mechanical failure.

Two practical points. First, if a mechanical problem contributed to the crash, a brake that did not engage or a stem that separated, photograph the scooter, note the vehicle identification number printed on it, and report the fault through the app before the unit is collected and repaired. Second, the rider agreement you accepted is a document worth keeping. Screenshot it. It is the version that applied on the day of your ride, and app terms change.

What to Do After a Scooter Crash in Massachusetts

The steps are the ordinary ones, with a few that matter more here than elsewhere.

Get medical attention the same day, even if you think you are fine, because the tort threshold in sec. 6D runs on documented medical expense and because head and wrist injuries from scooter falls are routinely underestimated in the first hour. Call the police and get a report; scooter crashes are frequently written up as something other than a motor vehicle crash, and the report is what anchors the claim. Photograph the scene, the vehicle, its plate, the scooter, the road surface, and any signage. Get the names and numbers of witnesses before they leave. Note the time, which matters because of the sunset rule. Preserve the scooter itself if it is yours, and do not repair it before it is documented.

Then be careful about the first phone call from the other driver’s insurer. You are not required to give a recorded statement to the other side’s carrier, and doing so early, before you know the extent of your injuries, is how riders talk themselves into a comparative fault argument. See recorded statements to the insurance company and dealing with the insurance adjuster.

If you were riding in a city where scooter crashes are common, the Massachusetts crash report publishes the actual MassDOT counts by community and by road, including the highest-crash streets in Boston, Springfield, and every other town clearing the data threshold.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Do I need a driver’s license to ride an electric scooter in Massachusetts?

A: Yes. M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 1E states that a motorized scooter shall not be operated on any way by a person not possessing a valid driver’s license or learner’s permit. There is no separate minimum age in the section, so the license requirement functions as the age gate. A rider without a license or permit is operating unlawfully even if they are otherwise following every other rule.

Q: Can I ride an electric scooter on the sidewalk in Massachusetts?

A: The state statute does not say. M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 1E grants scooters the right to use public ways and excludes only limited access or express state highways where signs prohibiting scooters or bicycles are posted. It contains no sidewalk provision at all, which is a contrast with the bicycle statute, M.G.L. c. 85, sec. 11B, which expressly addresses sidewalk riding. Sidewalk scooter riding is therefore governed by local ordinance and differs from one city or town to the next. Check the ordinance for the specific community before you ride.

Q: Is a helmet required on an electric scooter in Massachusetts?

A: Yes, at every age. M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 1E requires a person operating a motorized scooter to wear protective headgear conforming to minimum standards prescribed by the registrar. This is stricter than the bicycle rule in M.G.L. c. 85, sec. 11B, which mandates helmets only for riders 16 and under.

Q: Can I ride an electric scooter at night in Massachusetts?

A: Not under the statute. M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 1E provides that no person shall operate a motor scooter upon any way at any time after sunset or before sunrise. Unlike the bicycle rules, there is no exception for a scooter equipped with a headlight and taillight. In practical terms this makes an ordinary evening commute unlawful for much of the Massachusetts year.

Q: How fast can an electric scooter legally go in Massachusetts?

A: No more than 20 miles per hour under M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 1E, and less wherever the posted limit is lower, because the same section makes scooter operators subject to all traffic laws and regulations of the Commonwealth. Many consumer scooters sold today exceed 20 miles per hour, so the capability of the device is not the legal limit.

Q: If I was not wearing a helmet, can the insurance company use that against me?

A: Possibly, and this is the most important difference between scooters and bicycles in Massachusetts. M.G.L. c. 85, sec. 11B contains an express sentence stating that a bicycle helmet violation shall not be used as evidence of contributory negligence in any civil action, and M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 7AA gives a child restraint or under-13 seat belt violation the same protection. M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 1E contains no such clause, and neither does the adult seat belt statute, M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 13A. A statutory violation in Massachusetts is evidence of negligence rather than automatic fault, and it only counts if it is causally connected to the injury, but a scooter rider does not have the statutory shield a cyclist has.

Q: Does PIP cover me if a car hits me while I am on a scooter?

A: The claim goes to the striking vehicle’s PIP under the pedestrian clause. M.G.L. c. 90, sec. 34A extends personal injury protection to any pedestrian struck by the insured’s motor vehicle, up to $8,000, regardless of fault. The statute does not define whether a person on a motorized scooter is a pedestrian for that purpose, so it is worth raising the coverage question at the start of the claim rather than assuming it.

Q: Can I still recover if I was breaking one of the scooter rules when I was hit?

A: In most cases yes. Massachusetts follows modified comparative negligence under M.G.L. c. 231, sec. 85: damages are reduced by the injured person’s share of fault, and recovery is barred only if that share is greater than the combined negligence of the defendants. Riding after sunset or without turn signals is a factor a jury can weigh, not an automatic bar. Whether it reduces a particular recovery, and by how much, depends on the facts.

Q: Is Jimmy Knows AI giving me legal advice?

A: No. This is general information about Massachusetts law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. How any statute applies depends entirely on the facts of a specific situation. For advice about a specific matter, speak with a Massachusetts attorney. The Jim Glaser Law line is answered 24 hours a day at (617) JIM-WINS, and the first telephone consultation is free.