As officials across California grapple with a growing number of crashes, injuries and deaths surrounding electric bicycles — especially for youth riders — a pilot program launching in Orange County aims to create a standardized e-bike safety platform for the whole state to use.
It’s being rolled out in Orange County in an attempt to create a consistent, statewide compliance database for e-bikes as state leaders also look to increase uniformity among e-bike laws.
AB 1569 — a current piece of state legislation co-authored by Assemblymember Laurie Davies (R-Laguna Niguel), whose district includes South Orange County — similarly seeks to require the State Department of Education and California Highway Patrol to create a standardized e-bike safety and training program for students in grades 7 to 12.
It’s meant to address piecemeal e-bike rules that can vary among neighboring cities and school districts.
“In my district, you can actually get onto your e-bike and go through at least four different cities within 30 minutes, and each city has different rules,” Davies said in a phone interview. “Having standardized education, they’ll know that this fits wherever they’re riding their bike.”
It comes after a young man died after crashing on an e-bike just a few weeks ago in Huntington Beach, according to a news release from the police department.
Police found the 21-year-old man unconscious on the sidewalk next to the roadway, authorities said, before he was transported to a hospital and died from his injuries that same week. According to the press release, it isn’t known if impairment was a factor with e-bike rider.
Anthony Bright, founder and CEO of RidePermit, said his program would make it easier for parents, schools and law enforcement officers to catch kids riding e-bikes in a dangerous or illegal way and hold their parents accountable.
Bright lives in Coto de Caza, adding that as a cyclist he saw problems with e-bikes rise over the past several years in South Orange County and beyond.
“When I ride on the road, it’s dangerous. The kids need to be aware of what the rules are,” Bright said in a phone interview. “The majority of kids are not popping wheelies in the middle of the street. The ones that are, their parents need to be held accountable.”
A Free Compliance & Safety Dashboard For Parents, Schools, Cops
RidePermit seeks to create a statewide dashboard that requires kids and their parents to take a safety training course, pass a quiz and register their e-bike online before riding it to school.
They’d then receive a free digital ID linked with their age, school and parent contact information. It would also list the student’s e-bike model and class and whether or not it’s permitted for their specific school district.
Parents can purchase an optional $25 sticker decal to place on the e-bike.
Luke Packman, 12, places a RidePermit decal sticker on his Super 73 e-bike on July 27, 2026. Credit: ANGELINA HICKS, Voice of OC
“If we had all the kids using one platform, all the data for the state is there,” Bright said. “We could see how many incidents, which district is having more suspensions, which age group is having the most incidents — you’d have empirical data that the state, districts, schools and law enforcement could use to make decisions from.”
School districts can use RidePermit to add additional rules for their specific jurisdictions to ensure all students are in compliance when they register.
And school resource officers or administrators could log incidents when a student breaks the rules — informing parents and tracking how many times incidents occur.
Bright’s vision is for a single database for the entire state that’s free to use.
While the digital ID and optional sticker decal would function almost like a driver’s license for e-bike riders, Bright is also working with law enforcement to create a larger decal that would function more like a license plate — allowing officers to ID someone fleeing on e-bike without having to pursue.
“They can see it from their vehicle, their vests can record it [and] they can come back later and look at it in more detail to see the permit number,” Bright said.
“Through the RidePermit system, guess what? They got the parents’ telephone number and address and email to get in touch with them.”
A Ladera Ranch family was the first to register with RidePermit just ahead of its July 31 launch.
Mike Packman and his 12-year-old son Luke said they registered for the program because it can help keep everyone safer on the roads.
“He’s a good kid, and I don’t think he’s doing anything,” Mike Packman said in an interview at his home in Ladera Ranch, “but being part of something that will help track everybody’s e-bikes and put some regulation around it and make it easier to police — it makes us feel more comfortable.”
Luke Packman, 12, sits atop his Super 73 e-bike in a Ladera Ranch neighborhood alongside his father, Mike Packman, on July 27, 2026. Credit: ANGELINA HICKS, Voice of OC
State Leaders Seek Increased E-bike Safety For Schoolchildren
Assemblymember Davies’ bill passed the Senate in a 39-0 vote earlier this week. It also passed the Assembly in May but hasn’t yet been signed by the governor.
The bill seeks to create a consistent safety training course for California students to take before they can ride an e-bike to school.
While the bill is only for students in grades 7 to 12, Davies said it’s just the beginning.
She co-authored a different bill earlier this year that would have required DMV registration and special license plates for e-bikes, but it got stuck in the Assembly Appropriations Committee in May.
“You can’t put a price on safety. I believe that it’s just a matter of time before registration is mandated,” Davies said. “In order for our law enforcement to do their job better, you do need to have this registered.”
She said the e-bike training that already exists across the state is patchwork and there needs to be a uniform safety program to make sure kids and their parents fully understand the rules and regulations of e-bikes before hitting their route to school.
She said a program like RidePermit would be beneficial for Orange County and the state.
“It’s education before acceleration — making sure these kids have the rules of the road and they understand,” Davies said. “Same with parents; that they understand the speed these bikes can go and what the consequences are.”
E-bike Accidents On The Rise in Orange County
A CHOC study from earlier this year examined youth e-bike injuries and found the number of trauma activations for e-bike accidents has sharply increased over the past five years in their emergency room.
A trauma activation is when a specialized medical team assembles to treat a patient with severe, life-threatening injuries.
In 2021, CHOC’s emergency room saw only one trauma patient because of an e-bike-related injury. That number increased to 38 in 2022, 61 in 2023 and 125 in 2024.
In 2025, the emergency room saw 201 trauma patients with e-bike injuries.
[Read: Deaths, Crashes, Arrests: Orange County Grapples With E-bikes]
Orange County parents are also increasingly facing criminal charges when they knowingly allow their children to ride illegal e-bikes and e-motorcycles.
An Aliso Viejo mom was charged with felony child endangerment and involuntary manslaughter earlier this year after allegedly allowing her 14-year-old son to illegally operate an e-motorcycle.
The teen was riding the vehicle and doing wheelies in the middle of the street in April when he hit an 81-year-old man and fled the scene, leaving the man with critical injuries, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s office. The man died from his injuries two weeks later.
A Yorba Linda father was also charged with felony child endangerment and abuse this year after allegedly helping his 12-year-old son illegally modify his e-motorcycle to allow it to reach speeds up to 60 mph.
According to the DA’s office, the 12-year-old suffered from a fractured skull after he ran a red light and collided with a car while riding the illegal e-motorcycle. Reports say the boy and his father had already attended an e-bike safety presentation after the child was previously cited for riding an illegal e-motorcycle.
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer also announced an e-bike/e-motorcycle unit in May to review potential criminal charges against youth and adults, including parents who knowingly allow their children to ride illegal e-motorcycles.
[Read: Orange County’s Growing E-bike Crackdown Continues Targeting Parents]
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.
Davies said lawmakers need to boost safety surrounding e-bikes.
“The number one issue is safety,” she said. “Safety for the kids and safety for everyone on the road.”
Angelina Hicks is the Voice of OC Collegiate News Service Editor. Contact her at ahicks@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @angelinahicks13.
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