Woman who invested in e-bikes should have checked law, minister says

A Cayman government minister said a woman who invested $65,000 of her savings to import e-bikes and found that strict rules had reduced demand for the vehicles should have been aware of the legislation.

Minister Jay Ebanks, whose responsibilities include vehicle and driver licensing, said that Juliet Levene, who ordered 135 e-bikes last August, before the decision to enforce legislation passed seven years ago was announced, should have checked the law.

“I don’t know how that person could be affected by the law because we are just dealing with the law today,” he said in Parliament on 10 March during debate on amendments to the Traffic Act.

Ebanks added he did not know if Levene, who said she spent her life savings on her Sama Bikes business, just “hadn’t read the 2018-19 law” or meant that enforcement of the legislation had affected her.

“When you’re going into business [and] you’re going to order things, you should look at the law and see what the law states and what it’s going to allow you – not to predict what will be in the future.

“But what I am saying is that individual then, that’s bringing in the bikes, should have just looked at that.”

He was speaking after Joey Hew, the leader of the opposition People’s Progressive Movement, raised Levene’s plight during the debate over an amendment to the law to remove speed from the classification of bicycles to draw a distinction between pedal power alone and battery-assisted machines.

E-bike woes

Levene ordered the machines in August 2025 – before the government and the Royal Cayman Islands Police Service planned to get tough on the enforcement of regulations that mandated insurance, registration and licensing of e-bikes.

The legislation, which involves considerable expense for users of what are sometimes referred to as ‘micro-mobility devices’, also includes e-scooters and other small electric-powered personal transportation such as Segways and all-terrain vehicles.

During a PPM public meeting on 3 March, Levene said she had orders for 50 bikes but had sold just two after news of the enforcement policy was announced.

Hew told MPs that Levene had fought back tears as she spoke about her problem at the first event of the PPM’s ‘listening tour’.

“And I just say that … sometimes, in trying to do good, we have unintended consequences,” Hew said in Parliament.

Deputy PPM leader Kenneth Bryan agreed with Hew that road safety was crucial and that it should be supported, but the bigger picture, including Cayman transport deficiencies, had to be looked at.

He highlighted that Levene had “looked at the market, saw the demand and ordered a very large supply and stock of these e-bikes and as soon as the law changed, the demand dropped”.

Bryan said that was a clear signal that it had put people off the vehicles, which could lead to more congestion on the roads.

Ebanks, summing up the bill, told MPs, “I do feel sorry for the person if they have a stock of bikes that they can’t sell, but that’s not true either.

“So let me reverse back, because an individual that has a licence can ride a bike, so we’re not stopping them from getting a bike.”

Ebanks added he would encourage Caymanians to go out and buy e-bikes and that he was considering buying one himself because he can’t go on long runs any more.

“So I need electricity to bring me back home.”

But he said the original legislation, which he highlighted had been passed under a coalition government headed by the PPM, had to be enforced, although he was open to potential changes such as the creation of special zones where e-bikes could be ridden without a licence.

He invited Hew and Bryan to join him in buying bikes from Sama and “help take that stock off of them”.