Can You Get a DUI on a Bike or Scooter in Arizona?

Pedal bicycles: not a DUI

A device moved by human power is not a “vehicle” under Arizona’s definitions, so riding a pedal bicycle while impaired is not DUI under A.R.S. § 28-1381. That is not a free pass: an impaired cyclist can still be cited for traffic violations, and conduct that endangers or disturbs others can be charged as disorderly conduct or endangerment. But the DUI statute — with its license, interlock, and jail consequences — does not reach the bicycle.

The electric middle: e-bikes and e-scooters

Arizona law generally treats electric bicycles and electric standup scooters like bicycles, which keeps ordinary shared-rental scooters and pedal-assist e-bikes outside the DUI statute in most cases. The equipment matters, though: a machine powerful or fast enough to fall outside those definitions — larger electric motorcycles, high-powered builds — is a motor vehicle, and cities can layer their own ordinances on top. Officers do sometimes charge these cases; whether the device actually meets the vehicle definition is then a genuine, winnable issue.

Clearly still DUI: mopeds, golf carts, and everything with a motor and a registration

Mopeds and motor-driven cycles are vehicles. Golf carts are vehicles — golf-cart DUIs are a real thing in Arizona retirement communities. Off-road vehicles, side-by-sides, and boats (under the separate OUI statute) all support impaired-operation charges. And “actual physical control” doctrine applies to all of them, the same as a car. If you have been charged on any device, the vehicle question and the control question both deserve a hard look — start with our DUI defense page.