In recent weeks, as high-powered electric motorcycles have surged in popularity and prompted growing safety concerns, cities across the Treasure Valley have been rushing to clarify their rules and crack down on dangerous riding.
But the different tacks agencies are taking reveal confusion over how state law should apply to the relatively new — and sometimes hard to identify — e-motorcycles.
Boise was first to pass an ordinance defining the powerful “e-motos” and confining them to public roads. A similar ordinance in Garden City followed, banning what it called “high-speed electric motorbikes” from the Boise River Greenbelt and places like city parks and bike paths…