SAN DIEGO (KGTV) \u2014 San Diego approved new e-bike safety regulations Tuesday, setting a minimum age requirement and reinforcing helmet rules amid a surge in serious injuries among young riders.<\/p>\n
The city’s new ordinance raises the legal riding age for Class 1 and Class 2 e-bikes to 12. The regulations also reinforce helmet requirements and clarify that additional riders are only permitted on an e-bike if a permanent second seat is attached.<\/p>\n
A recent report from Rady Children’s Hospital found 262 traumatic e-bike injuries were treated in 2025. The hospital says e-bike injuries became the number one reason for emergency visits.<\/p>\n
I met Aria Grossman, with Circulate Planning & Policy, across the street from where a 15-year-old was injured on their e-bike after being hit by a car \u2014 one of many incidents that fueled concerns about e-bike safety.<\/p>\n
“I mean, I think all of us want to see less injuries of kids on our streets,” Grossman said.<\/p>\n
“There’s been a lot of attention in the news, right, and that’s what’s led to this, this adoption of this ordinance on the increase of trauma calls or severe injuries of kids on e-bikes coming into hospitals and thats a really big problem,” Grossman said.<\/p>\n
Grossman says restrictions are only part of the solution. She believes safer streets and bike infrastructure could also help.<\/p>\n
“But I do think there’s a big gap in this data that we’re using to make this decision,” Grossman said.<\/p>\n
“We’re seeing these increases in e-bike injuries, but we don’t really have a sense of how e-bike use is changing,” Grossman said.<\/p>\n
“Maybe the solution is more protective infrastructure as opposed to regulating the use of different kinds of bicycles,” Grossman said.<\/p>\n
The city will begin with a 60-day education period before enforcement begins. After that, violations could result in a $25 fine, with an option to dismiss it by completing a free CHP-certified e-bike safety course within 120 days.<\/p>\n
“Parents are gonna have to educate themselves on the different classifications of e-bikes, what is safe to buy for their kids and what isn’t,” Grossman said.<\/p>\n
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN DIEGO (KGTV) \u2014 San Diego approved new e-bike safety regulations Tuesday, setting a minimum age requirement and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[150954,150955,22387,12656,74,13134,150956,76,75,150957],"class_list":["post-372632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-circulate-planning-policy","tag-e-bike-age-limit","tag-e-bike-safety","tag-rady-childrens-hospital","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-city-council","tag-san-diego-e-bike-ordinance","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-youth-e-bike-injuries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}