RIO DE JANEIRO (CN) - Stefany Correia Cesario, a 30-year-old resident of Vidigal in Rio de Janeiro's south zone, was riding her electric two-wheeler in a bike lane on her way to her job at a beach kiosk in Copacabana Tuesday morning when municipal agents stopped her.

"He told me to go into the road," she said. "I said no, sir, I don't feel safe, it's very dangerous."

The stop was among the first under Decree 57823, published by Rio City Hall on Monday and effective immediately. The city described it as the first such regulation adopted by a Brazilian capital for electric micro-mobility vehicles.

The changes include banning those vehicles from bike lanes, requiring helmets for all riders and reclassifying some of them as mopeds - a move that, in practice, makes them subject to registration, license plates and a driver's license.

The decree was published one week after a woman and her son were killed when a bus struck them as they rode an electric two-wheeler, and four months after a federal resolution on those vehicles took effect.

In force since Jan. 1, Resolution 996/2023 of Brazil's National Traffic Council, known as Contran, defined the categories of mopeds, electric bicycles and self-propelled individual mobility devices, setting criteria such as power, top speed and use of a throttle.

Under the federal rules, electric bicycles are only those with pedal assist and no throttle. Self-propelled devices are capped at 1,000 watts and about 20 mph, while mopeds may have electric motors of up to 4 kilowatts and a top speed of about 31 mph. Unlike self-propelled devices, mopeds require registration, license plates, a driver's license and a helmet.

Potential legal conflict

Gustavo Justino de Oliveira, a professor of administrative law at the University of Sao Paulo, said Brazil's Constitution gives the federal government exclusive authority to legislate on traffic and transportation, while municipalities have a narrower role focused on regulating circulation on roads under their control.

"This Rio decree seems to violate some rules," Oliveira said. "It changes some classifications and creates possibilities that are not provided for in the federal resolution. Rio de Janeiro is creating a regulation that is innovative and, at times, goes against the Contran resolution."

But Andre Rodrigues Cyrino, an associate professor of administrative law at Rio de Janeiro State University, said while traffic legislation falls under the exclusive authority of the federal government, Brazil's Traffic Code allows municipalities to decide some issues, especially those related to local circulation.

"The definition, for example, of what a bike lane is and who can travel there could be an area in which the municipality could legislate," he said.

Still, he said, the decree goes beyond that sphere by tying new requirements to a classification that conflicts with the federal rule. Cyrino said the conflict with Contran's regulation is clear and could end up in court.

He said there is also a more sophisticated debate that would depend on how the decree is applied in practice. If the new rules end up making the use of those vehicles unworkable in parts of the city, that could open the door to legal challenges based on an indirect ban on the activity.

Helena Carvalho Coelho, a lawyer and deputy coordinator of the National Observatory for Sustainable Mobility at Insper Cidades, said Rio's decree may have crossed the line by changing concepts already defined by the resolution.

"A self-propelled vehicle is not a moped and cannot be treated as a moped," Coelho said. "If everything is treated the same way, what we are going to do is push people toward motorcycles, because the cost will become so high that people will migrate to motorcycles."

Another path to road safety

For Coelho, the biggest problem is that the decree further restricts the circulation space of vehicles already competing for limited infrastructure instead of prioritizing lower speed limits.

Alianca Bike, an association that promotes bicycle use in Brazil, criticized the decree and said equating self-propelled vehicles with mopeds "gets the concept wrong" and could increase risks by restricting circulation without offering safe alternatives. The group said road safety depends less on broad prohibitions and more on adequate infrastructure, traffic education and enforcement.

City Hall defended the decree as a response aimed at organizing the circulation of those vehicles and improving road safety in the city.

In a statement released Tuesday, it said the rules are intended to reserve bike lanes for bicycles, electric bicycles, scooters and electric scooters, while vehicles classified as mopeds must travel on the road and comply with requirements such as license plates and a driver's license.

The city also said the deadline for license plates runs through the end of the year and announced investments of 20 million reais (about $4 million) in expanding bike lanes and 8 million reais (about $1.6 million) in motorcycle lanes.

In a statement, Brazil's Transport Ministry said general rules on driver licensing, registration and circulation are defined by Brazil's Traffic Code and Contran resolutions, but said municipalities may regulate aspects of local circulation as long as they follow the guidelines set by federal law and Contran rules.

The decree also triggered a strong reaction on social media, ranging from rejection and confusion to support for stricter rules. The main complaints focused on the lack of clarity over where those vehicles will be allowed to circulate and resistance to the driver's license requirement for some riders affected by the new classification.

Some users welcomed the attempt to impose more order on the circulation of those vehicles. Maria Lyra Bulcao, a 38-year-old producer, said she viewed the new rules positively because circulation had become dangerous and disorganized.

Bulcao, who has owned an electric bicycle since 2022, said she was initially confused by the decree and even wrote to the store where she bought the vehicle to seek guidance.

For her, regularizing self-propelled vehicles through requirements such as license plates and driver's licenses could bring some control, although she believes the decree may have limited effect without enforcement.

Cesario said she does not know what to do next.

She said she bought her electric two-wheeler just two months ago after saving for nearly a year to afford it. Without it, she said, the trip home from work takes about two hours. With the two-wheeler, it drops to about 30 minutes.

Now, besides not feeling safe riding in traffic, she said she cannot afford to get a driver's license to keep using the vehicle.

"Either they make a lane just for bicycles or let us ride in the bike lane, because otherwise there will be many more accidents," she said. "We'll have to wait and see what happens."

Courthouse News reporter Marilia Marasciulo is based in Brazil.

Source: Courthouse News Service