DC's New Vulnerable User Law: E-Scooter and Motorcycle Riders Finally Escape the 1% Rule
For a person on an e-scooter, a motorcycle, or an e-bike, a collision with a car is never a fair fight. Two tons of steel against a human body: the physics decide who gets hurt. Until three weeks ago, DC law compounded that unfairness with one of the harshest rules in American tort law. That has now changed.
On March 16, 2021, the Vulnerable User Collision Recovery Amendment Act of 2020 — D.C. Law 23-183 — took effect. It extends the District's comparative-fault protection, first enacted for pedestrians and cyclists in 2016, to the full range of "vulnerable users" of the roadway.
The gap the new law closes
Some history. The District has long followed pure contributory negligence: an injured person found even 1% at fault recovers nothing. In 2016, the Council carved out the most sympathetic victims with the Motor Vehicle Collision Recovery Act, which protected pedestrians, bicyclists, and other non-motorized users struck by motor vehicles. Under that law, a covered victim's own negligence bars recovery only if it is both a proximate cause of the injury and greater than the combined negligence of all defendants.
But the 2016 Act had a gap that grew wider every year: it covered only non-motorized users. When dockless e-scooters flooded DC's streets starting in 2018, their riders — along with motorcyclists and e-bike riders using motor assistance — remained stuck under the old 1% rule. The most exposed people on the road had the least legal protection, based on nothing more than whether their two wheels had a motor.
What D.C. Law 23-183 does
The new law rewrites the definitions in D.C. Code §§ 50-2204.51–.52 to protect all "vulnerable users," expressly including riders of:
- bicycles and motorized bicycles
- motorcycles and motor-driven cycles
- electric mobility devices — the e-scooters and e-bikes now on every corner
- personal mobility devices
- skateboards, all-terrain vehicles, and dirt bikes, and similar devices
For all of these riders in collisions with motor vehicles (and in collisions between vulnerable users and pedestrians), the comparative standard now applies: the injured rider recovers unless their own negligence was a proximate cause of the injury and greater than the aggregated negligence of everyone who hit them. The last clear chance doctrine is preserved.
| Road user struck by a car | Before 3/16/21 | After 3/16/21 |
|---|---|---|
| Pedestrian | Comparative standard (2016 Act) | Comparative standard |
| Cyclist (pedal) | Comparative standard (2016 Act) | Comparative standard |
| E-scooter / e-bike rider | 1% contributory bar | Comparative standard |
| Motorcyclist | 1% contributory bar | Comparative standard |
| Skateboarder | Comparative standard (non-motorized) | Comparative standard (express) |
| Driver of a car | 1% contributory bar | 1% contributory bar (unchanged) |
Why this matters so much in practice
Under the old rule, insurers routinely denied scooter and motorcycle claims outright with a one-line theory: the rider was going too fast, changed lanes without signaling, wasn't in the bike lane — something — and therefore recovers nothing. The 1% rule made even strong cases risky to try, and adjusters priced that risk into every settlement offer.
The new standard flips that dynamic. A scooter rider who was perhaps slightly imperfect — but far less at fault than the driver who turned across their path without looking — now has a claim the law will actually hear. Fault becomes a matter of degree for the jury to weigh, not an on/off switch the defense controls.
What this means for injured people in the District
- Motorcyclists and scooter riders hurt on or after March 16, 2021 are covered by the new comparative standard. The date of the crash controls which regime applies.
- Don't accept a denial based on "contributory negligence" without legal advice. Adjusters spent years using the old rule reflexively; some will keep trying.
- Drivers are still under the old rule. If you were injured while driving a car, the 1% bar still applies to you — the new law protects vulnerable users only.
- Fault still matters. The comparative standard is not a free pass: a rider found more at fault than the driver still recovers nothing. Careful investigation and reconstruction remain essential.
The Council's judgment here is simple and humane: the people most likely to be catastrophically hurt on DC streets should not face the steepest legal cliff. As of last month, they no longer do.
If you or a loved one has been hurt, call Posey Lebowitz at (202) 524-0123 or send us a message for a free consultation.
Part of our DMV case law archive, compiled in 2026 to reflect the archive of some of the most important decisions in injury law.