Quick Take:
Capitola’s City Council and police department are advocating for increased regulation at the state level for young e-biker users. They want more training for younger users and recommend that some of that education can happen in schools.
Capitola City Council unanimously voted this week to ask state legislators to establish a statewide minimum age of 14 for certain electric bikes, require riders under age 16 take a written test and make e-bike traffic safety part of the core curriculum in schools. The effort comes as local leaders say they have seen a sharp increase in the use of e-bikes among young people over the past several years.
During a city council meeting Thursday, city officials described how many young teens are riding e-bikes that are much more powerful than traditional bicycles, and in potentially dangerous traffic conditions, without any safety training. For example, class 2 e-bikes allow the user to ride up to 20 miles per hour using just the throttle, without any pedaling.
In an interview on Thursday, Capitola Police Chief Sarah Ryan said while most young e-bike riders are responsible, some don’t have the knowledge or training to prepare them for the road. City lawmakers hope to change that by asking California legislators to consider their three recommendations as a starting point.
“Youth that have access to these e-bikes, that are middle school age, they don’t have driver training, they don’t drive yet, so they haven’t been through driver safety,” Ryan told Lookout. “They don’t exactly understand the rules of the road, and their knowledge is limited to what the adults in their lives let them know.”
The city council’s letter, addressed to state Representatives Dawn Addis and Gail Pellerin, and Senator John Laird, is coming at a time when other California municipalities are also taking steps to address safety concerns about youth and e-bikes. Marin County and San Diego counties implemented laws this year also establishing age restrictions for class 2 e-bikes in their unincorporated areas. Currently, there is no statewide age minimum for class 2 e-bikes.
Police officials across the county say they’ve noticed a steady rise in incidents, though they note it could simply be tied to the rapid surge in use as opposed to a growing disregard for the law. Last year, Santa Cruz County passed an ordinance banning e-bikes from being ridden on county sidewalks.
A handful of incidents have involved serious injury, and in a situation involving two elderly residents, at least one death. Last month, a 17-year-old riding an e-bike was seriously injured after a collision with a semi-truck in Capitola. Police have also seized two e-bikes from youth who violated traffic laws or operated illegally modified e-bikes.
Capitola City Manager Jamie Goldstein, who helped come up with the recommendations, said Capitola could look into its own restrictions within the city limits, similar to Marin, but it would likely create confusion for the riders crossing into neighboring jurisdictions where there might not be similar regulations.
“Capitola by itself [is] too small, and the idea that there could be a county-only idea is certainly potentially worth exploring,” he said, during Thursday’s meeting. “At the end of the day, this letter could still be useful, because frankly…we’re not the only ones [with these issues], and a statewide approach could make things a lot cleaner.”
Mayor Joe Clarke told Lookout Friday that Capitola city leaders haven’t had discussions with county officials about countywide efforts. He said they see the statewide effort as the best way forward.
Once the legislators receive the letter, Goldstein said Capitola officials would likely ask to set up meetings with legislative staff to gauge their interest in the proposed rules.
Addis, Pellerin and Laird didn’t respond to a request for comment by publication time.
City councilmember Melinda Orbach said class 2 e-bikes are dangerous for youth, whose prefrontal cortex isn’t fully developed enough to fully assess danger on roads. She compared a class 2 e-bike to a motorcycle. Orbach is a family nurse practitioner.
“I see these kids just throttle and go down the street, and it’s so unsafe,” she said, saying that they don’t even have to pedal. “We’re not banning e-bikes completely. They can still ride class 1 e-bikes, but class 2, to me, is dangerous.”
Depending on the class of the e-bike, the bike can only engage the motor and propel the bike forward when the user is pedaling, called pedal assist. And some e-bikes have throttle assist, meaning, similar to an electric scooter, moped or motorcycle, the user can engage the throttle, which uses the motor to provide power without pedaling.
Class 1 e-bikes give the user pedal assist up to 20 mph and have no throttle, class 2 e-bikes have pedal assist and throttle up to 20 mph while class 3 e-bikes have throttle assist up to 20 mph and pedal assist up to 28 mph. Under existing state law, users of class 3 e-bikes must be 16 years or older.
Clarke said during the meeting that he’s seen teens mostly riding class 2 e-bikes. Far fewer are riding class 1, which would potentially make it difficult for youth to adapt to the proposed changes. Still he said he supports the recommendations.
“I think this is a great start for us to move forward and get somewhere on this because e-bike safety is huge,” he said.
Capitola vice-mayor Alexander Pedersen was the only council member to express any kind of dissent about the recommendations. He said e-bikes are a “revolution of transportation and mobility” that improve health from physical activity and reduce the use of cars.
“I’m very hesitant to put up barriers or restrictions that may decrease usage,” he said. “That’s not to say that I don’t care about the safety of children or adults or anybody else who is using this technology for transportation. That’s extremely important, but I think it needs to be based on data, and I think it needs to be not overly restrictive.”
He echoed the concerns raised by a local environmental organization, Ecology Action. In a letter to the city council, the organization’s Transportation Mobility Director Matt Miller said the group understands the city’s goal to improve safety but is urging local officials to consider infrastructure improvements like protected bike lanes instead in order to improve safety for cyclists.
Rather thanthe city, or state, going straight into an age limit for class 2 e-bikes, Ecology Action suggested implementing a pilot program to “determine the real safety benefits of introducing an age minimum.”
While Ecology Action said it supports the idea of adding traffic safety to school lessons, the organization disagrees with the proposal for requiring teenage riders to pass a safety test, given by the DMV for example, for any class of e-bike. The group worries that getting the DMV involved would mean the state would eventually regulate e-bikes in a similar way as other motor vehicles, requiring riders to register them, apply for licenses and pay for insurance. This would make e-bikes more expensive and complicated to own, defeating the purpose of having them as an easy transportation option.
Soquel Union School District Superintendent Scott Turnbull told Lookout that generally he supports having youth take a traffic safety test for e-bikes. He wasn’t certain about the age requirement for class 2 e-bikes and said he needed to understand more about adding traffic safety to the curriculum before he could support those recommendations. He wonders about the availability of time within the day to add more material.
“I’d want to look into that a little bit more before I said anything because school time is precious,” he said. “Sometimes there can be competing interests. Students need more education on that, and where’s the time going to come from? Trying to navigate that paradox, that’s my only hesitation with that one.”
He added he doesn’t know for certain about the age requirement, partially due to his personal experience buying his daughter an e-bike before she turned 14.
“My daughter was pretty responsible and everything, so I wasn’t super worried,” he said “But all that said, even without me being able to say what I think the perfect age is, I think it’s smart that as a society, we’re trying to put some benchmarks in place over time.”
