{"id":505447,"date":"2026-10-23T15:12:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T15:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/505447\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T15:12:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T15:12:14","slug":"the-e-bike-backlash-is-here-is-it-an-overreaction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/505447\/","title":{"rendered":"The e-bike backlash is here. Is it an overreaction?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you live in any California city, surely you\u2019ve seen them: groups of boys at that painfully awkward and insecure stage of early adolescence riding around on e-bikes trying (and almost always failing) to look cool.<\/p>\n

Especially memorable are the ones who cover their faces like stormtroopers, or ICE agents, hoping to seem more intimidating than their not-yet-filled-out-frames would otherwise allow.<\/p>\n

The whole thing would be just another cringeworthy display of teenage rebellion if the potential consequences weren\u2019t so serious \u2014 many of those bikes are equipped with powerful electric motors and can go up to 60 mph.<\/p>\n

The results are predictable: E-bike riders were involved in at least 4,035 collisions in California from 2018 through 2024, according to researchers at UC San Diego<\/a>, and those were just the accidents serious enough to get reported to police. Accidents on e-bikes also led to injuries more serious than those suffered on traditional bikes, the researchers noted. <\/p>\n

You’re reading the Essential California newsletter <\/p>\n

L.A. Times reporters guide you through the most important news, features and recommendations of the morning.<\/p>\n

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Charging parents<\/p>\n

Many of the riders are between 10 and 14 years old and therefore too young to face serious criminal charges for the havoc they wreak.<\/p>\n

So Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer has started charging parents with child endangerment for allowing their kids to roam the streets on potentially lethal machines.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, his office announced charges against six people<\/a>, including the father of an 11-year-old who suffered a broken collarbone<\/a> and an arterial bleed after colliding with a pickup truck while speeding on his electric motorcycle in Yorba Linda, and the parents of a 13-year-old who was killed when he lost control<\/a> of his bike and crashed into a light pole in Garden Grove.<\/p>\n

Since January, Spitzer has filed charges against 12 parents in similar circumstances, including the mother of a 14-year-old who struck and killed an 81-year-old Vietnam veteran in Lake Forest.<\/p>\n

E-bike buybacks<\/p>\n

The effort to corral e-bike riders hasn\u2019t stopped at prosecuting their parents. Last month, Orange County officials sponsored a buyback program modeled on similar schemes designed to get guns off the streets \u2014 a measure of how seriously they view the threat.<\/p>\n

They offered gift cards ranging in value from $200 to $1,000 depending on the type of bike and scheduled the event to begin at 10 a.m. on a Sunday.<\/p>\n

To everyone\u2019s surprise, people started lining up at midnight<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They showed up with all manner of machines, including e-bikes (the kind with pedals), electric scooters and electric motorcycles. Officials had budgeted $100,000 for the program and wound up blowing through that in just a few hours.<\/p>\n

It was such a success, they\u2019re planning future buybacks with more lines to speed up the returns and plan to make sure the people surrendering their bikes are Orange County residents.<\/p>\n

Being a kid<\/p>\n

It\u2019s obvious why kids on those bikes make people anxious, and it makes sense for police and prosecutors to do whatever they can to keep them from hurting themselves and others.<\/p>\n

But sometimes I wonder if we\u2019re all overreacting a little.<\/p>\n

For more than a decade, I made the 20-mile commute to work at the Los Angeles Times on a motorcycle. Given what sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic does to my blood pressure, the motorcycle seemed like the safer option. And, yes, I remember the startled, sometimes angry, expressions on drivers\u2019 faces as I cruised by at twice their speed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m way more scared of you than you are of me,\u201d I\u2019d shout, inaudibly, inside my helmet. Any one of those drivers could have killed me with a simple flick of their steering wheel. In my mind, I wasn\u2019t being anti-social. Quite the opposite: I\u2019d never put more faith in the kindness and care of my fellow humans.<\/p>\n

Maybe that\u2019s why, when I look at those kids on their e-bikes, I don\u2019t see Public Enemy No. 1. I know they\u2019re trying to look tough \u2014 maybe even trying to scare me \u2014 but all I can see is how vulnerable they are. I hope we don\u2019t start treating them all like criminals.<\/p>\n

Top stories \"FPO <\/a> <\/p>\n

(David Plunkert \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n

Is California\u2019s $4.25-trillion economy really in trouble?L.A. County\u2019s cheapest apartments are getting old, fastDespite years of rising rents, Los Angeles County still has hundreds of thousands of affordable apartments.But the region\u2019s cheapest rentals are also the oldest and are likely to need costly upgrades<\/a> in the years ahead.Trump ramps up fraud investigations of immigrantsAs the midterms approach, the Trump administration is expanding fraud investigations involving immigrants<\/a>.Recent, high-profile flash points include 28 lawful permanent residents accused this week of illegally voting in California and the federal investigation into Somali-born Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).California officials say many registrations flagged by federal authorities as possible fraud appear to belong to U.S.-born voters.More newsCommentary and opinionEditor\u2019s pickMore picksThings to do \"Shrimp <\/a> <\/p>\n

The shrimp empanadas, the mixta, perona and the Reina de la Casa are a few of the more popular dishes on the menu at Mariscos El Faro in Highland Park.<\/p>\n

(Dania Maxwell\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s recipe \"Chickpea, <\/a> <\/p>\n

(Jennifer Chong\/For The Times)<\/p>\n

Fresh, crunchy bread crumbs add contrast to this light chickpea and escarole soup<\/a> that eats like a hearty meal. Use another type of canned bean if that\u2019s all you have and also feel free to switch the escarole for your favorite green, like Swiss chard or kale.<\/p>\n

Question for you<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve told us your favorite Halloween candy. Now we want to know: How much have you spent on Halloween candy this year?<\/p>\n

Email us at essentialcalifornia@latimes.com<\/a>, and your response might appear in the newsletter this week.<\/p>\n

Photo of the day \"The <\/p>\n

The decaying skull of Mara looks out from the \u201cIndiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye\u201d ride at Disneyland. The ride underwent six weeks of refurbishment and is scheduled to open Friday, Oct. 23.<\/p>\n

(Myung J. Chun\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Games \"Mini <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s today\u2019s mini crossword<\/a>, plus our other free, daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and jigsaw games<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Have a great day, from the Essential California team<\/p>\n

Jack Dolan, investigative reporter
Hugo Mart\u00edn, assistant editor, fast break desk
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew Campa, weekend writer
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters<\/p>\n

How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com<\/a>. Check our top stories<\/a>, topics<\/a> and the latest articles<\/a> on latimes.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you live in any California city, surely you\u2019ve seen them: groups of boys at that painfully awkward…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[7,2299,1085,891,2300,2297,340,2303,48,52,51,47,50,49,63,2302,1086,1459,2301,2298,74,225,315,688],"class_list":["post-505447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-california","tag-civic-revolt","tag-covid","tag-covid-19","tag-days","tag-essential-california","tag-israel","tag-l-a","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-may","tag-pandemic","tag-part","tag-president-biden","tag-red-county","tag-san-diego","tag-state","tag-time","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505447","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=505447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}