More Orange County cities are joining the growing trend of agencies cracking down on electric bicycles and similar electric wheeled vehicles as collisions, injuries and felony charges are on the rise.
The spotlight is on youth riders as the transportation method becomes increasingly popular for kids and teens to get to school and around town.
Placentia City Council members voted unanimously during their Tuesday night meeting to prohibit dangerous e-bike riding, like wheelies and stunts, while also outlining rules for police officers to impound e-bikes and hold parents accountable for their kids’ actions.
It will still need a second vote from the council before the rules can go into effect.
Officials in Buena Park, Fullerton and Irvine have also eyed similar laws recently as the Children’s Hospital of Orange County reports a sharp increase in e-bike-related emergency room trauma activations over the past few years.
Frank Garza, a traffic sergeant with the Placentia Police Department, told council members that the city is following other municipalities in adding the e-bike rules.
“We’re not alone in taking this step,” Garza said during a previous council meeting in May, when the e-bike crackdown was discussed and approved in an initial vote.
“There’s several Orange County agencies and cities that have followed in the same suit and have already adopted similar ordinances in response to the same concerns that we have in our city,” Garza said. “It reflects a broader county or regional effort to address the growth that we’re having with the electric mobility devices.”
During the June 30 special meeting, Garza said Placentia looked at what other cities are doing and made the best of those practices.
“We don’t have the same issues as Huntington Beach or the beach cities that have the boardwalks and everything else,” Garza said. “We don’t even have specific issues like Brea, that has their own pathways and trails, and Yorba Linda.”
An Orange County school district also recently banned e-bikes for thousands of students ahead of next school year.
Starting in the fall, only high school students in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District will be permitted to ride e-bikes to school if they complete a training program. E-bikes will be prohibited on campuses for all other students.
It also comes as Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer has announced an e-bike/e-motorcycle unit to review potential criminal charges against youth and adults, including parents who knowingly allow their children to ride illegal e-motorcycles.
That development came after an Orange County mother was charged with involuntary manslaughter for allegedly allowing her 14-year-old son to illegally operate an e-motorcycle. The boy struck an 81-year-old man and fled the scene, leaving the man with critical injuries that resulted in his death two weeks later, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s office.
[Read: Deaths, Crashes, Arrests: Orange County Grapples With E-bikes]
Standard e-bikes can be broken down into three classes.
Class one e-bikes can reach speeds of 20 mph and require the user to pedal to operate with an electric boost. Class two e-bikes also go up to 20 mph but they have a throttle that can be operated without pedaling. Class three e-bikes can go as fast as 28 mph and also require the user to pedal to operate.
E-motorcycles, on the other hand, do not have pedals and require the rider to have a valid motorcycle license to operate legally. Some e-motorcycles that are more closely related to dirt bikes aren’t street legal for anyone.
E-bikes also have a motor with power less than 750 watts, while e-motorcycles have a more powerful motor that allow them to go faster than 28 mph.
In Placentia, city officials are regulating e-bikes and electric scooters in an attempt to address increasing safety concerns related to speed, unsafe riding behaviors and conflicts with pedestrians and vehicles.
According to the staff report, Placentia is regulating operational rules, setting speed limits, designating areas of use and adding citations and fines if riders break the rules.
The ordinance also allows police officers to seize e-bikes and other motorized mobility devices if cyclists are riding in a dangerous manner or if the electric device is illegal.
At the May council meeting, Garza said Placentia has seen a “significant increase” in the use of e-bikes, especially among youth who use them to get to school every day.
“These devices do offer some clear benefits — they provide affordable transportation, which is important today,” he said. “They expand mobility, especially for our younger riders as they ride them to school daily. However, with that increase comes a noticeable rise in safety concerns.”
“There is a notable increase in collisions involving electric bikes and electric scooters, and we’re seeing more and more injuries,” Garza continued. “We’re seeing higher speeds in pedestrian-heavy areas, and we’re seeing unsafe riding behavior: stunt-riding, wheelies, high speeds. A lot of these things are causing the accidents that the electric bikes are involved in.”
Placentia defines motorized mobility devices as any electrically or motorized transportation devices for individual transportation — this includes e-bikes, motorized or electric scooters, electric skateboards and similar devices.
Parents or legal guardians could be held responsible to make sure minors follow the rules. They could be cited with an infraction and an administrative fine of up to $100 for the first violation, $200 for the second violation and $500 for each additional violation within one year, according to the city’s municipal code.
In addition to possible fines or penalties, police officers may impound motorized mobility devices if they have probable cause to believe that a minor violated the new regulations in a way that creates an immediate or substantial risk to public safety.
This includes reckless driving that creates an immediate hazard, willful disregard for traffic laws, group riding that obstructs traffic, and operation of devices in prohibited areas when pedestrians are present.
Officers cannot seize devices for minor technical equipment violations or when riders are using e-bikes lawfully and safely.
If a device is seized, police officers will provide a written notice and instructions for release. Devices will be held for a minimum of 48 hours without the option of paying a fine for early release and will be released to the parent or legal guardian, according to the staff report.
Law enforcement also have the ability to refer juvenile offenders to diversions or educational programs.
During the council’s meeting in May, Mayor Chad Wanke said he doesn’t like e-bikes, adding he thinks they’re “dangerous” and “a menace.”
“I’ve seen so much unsafe behavior in our city and others,” he said at the meeting.
Wanke also said he wants police officers to write tickets and cite people for breaking the new rules.
“I’m also suspicious of any parent that buys something like this for their kid or has one at home and says that they don’t realize that they’re not legal,” Wanke told police officers. “I want you to write tickets. People are fed up with this. It makes people scared to walk the streets. It makes people scared to walk their dogs.”
Under the new rules, all operators under the age of 18 have to wear helmets, but riders with a class three e-bike have to wear a helmet regardless of age.
Riders can use e-bikes of any class on public roadways and in bike lanes. There will be a 15 mph speed limit for e-bikes on multi-use trails and recreational paths, and there will be a speed limit of 10 mph in school zones.
E-bikes and other electric mobility devices would also be prohibited on athletic fields, sports courts and city parks.
“I’m glad that we’re doing this. It’s long overdue,” Mayor Wanke said. “I want you and the public to know that I think we really need to crack down on this. It’s not getting better — it’s getting worse.”
Angelina Hicks is the Voice of OC Collegiate News Service Editor. Contact her at ahicks@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @angelinahicks13.
Related