Are Electric Scooters Legal in Tennessee?

Title 55 now spells out scooters separately from mopeds and motor-driven cycles: §55‑8‑101 says an electric scooter has handlebars, weighs under 100 lb, and cannot go faster than 20 mph under its own power, and §55‑8‑208 applies bicycle rules to those devices while expressly stating that no titling or registration is required. Riders still have to obey the Uniform Rules of the Road (stop lights, riding with traffic, no riding while impaired), and scooters remain “motor-driven vehicles” for DUI purposes. At the same time, the statute lets counties, municipalities, and metropolitan governments set stricter deployment, parking, or curfew rules—Nashville, Knoxville, and Memphis all rely on that clause for their sidewalk bans, equity zones, and nightly shutdowns—so operators must secure local permits and conform to whatever geofences or fleet caps each jurisdiction imposes.