passed a bill<\/a> placing new speed limits and safety rules on e-bikes. Riders would be prohibited from exceeding 10 mph on sidewalks or pedestrian areas within 50 feet of a person. The bill also would create a statewide task force to track all crashes. As of Friday afternoon, it awaited the governor\u2019s approval.<\/p>\nCiting a surge in reckless riding and pedestrian close-calls, some South Florida municipalities are launching safety campaigns or passing ordinances to regulate e-bikes on neighborhood streets and sidewalks.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of times I see them on the street, and they are weaving close to cars, motorcycles and trucks,\u201d Lao said. \u201cBut if they\u2019re on the sidewalk, I think it\u2019s just as dangerous for the joggers, the walkers, and the people out walking their dogs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aventura, for example, ruled e-bikes must be pedal-powered, with motors off, unless in a bicycle lane, and riders must give pedestrians an audible signal before passing while on an e-scooter or e-bike. Cities like Weston and Parkland have published e-bike safety reminders and set rules for their use on public trails.<\/p>\n
Pediatric ER doctors and surgeons say many parents don\u2019t realize how fast e-bikes can go, or that their children know how to modify them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese kids are figuring out ways to jailbreak them,\u201d Solomon said. \u201cThey are finding different apps on the internet and they are just making them go faster. A parent might think that they\u2019re buying a bike that goes 15 miles an hour and all of a sudden it goes up to 28 or 30 miles an hour. That\u2019s a completely different animal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lao, the pediatric surgeon, wants to see more education around e-bikes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would really stress the importance of moms, dads, families, children, doing their homework on what they\u2019re purchasing, what its capabilities are, and what kind of protective gear they can potentially wear with it, especially for those higher velocity e-bikes.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Florida, the law requires helmets for bike riders younger than age 16. Safety experts strongly recommend them for those older than 16, too, but state law does not require them.<\/p>\n
Rachele Solomon, trauma injury prevention coordinator at Memorial Healthcare System, found through studying injury data that wearing a full-coverage helmet is critical when riding e-bikes at high speeds.<\/p>\n
The standard bicycle helmet is not safety-rated for speeds greater than 15 mph, she pointed out.<\/p>\n
\u201cHelmets save lives and we know you should be wearing them,\u201d Solomon said. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of like wearing your seatbelt when you get in the car.\u201d<\/p>\n
The American College of Surgeons says the type of helmet should be determined by the electric bike\u2019s speed.<\/p>\n
All ages are getting injured<\/p>\n
Of course, it\u2019s not just teens riding e-bikes. People of all ages are using them for delivery work, commutes or just for fun, and older adults use them to keep up with their kids or their friends on group rides.<\/p>\n
Memorial trauma data shows e-bike\/e-scooter accidents have happened to those as young as 2 and up to 84.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s kind of like when I was a kid, people had bicycles, and now kids have electric devices,\u201d Solomon said. \u201cBut they\u2019re much more dangerous than bicycles in a sense because they go faster.\u201d<\/p>\n
Post-accident, Varren still sports a forehead scar and continues to ride his e-bike in his Miramar neighborhood with friends. Now, though, he prepares for the ride.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey love these bikes, they really do,\u201d said his father, Smith. \u201cBut now my son is putting on his pads, his helmet, he\u2019s doing all the prep work before he even gets on the bike.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. \u2014 On a late afternoon e-bike ride with friends in his Miramar neighborhood, 11-year-old Varren…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219488,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[99552,99551,11398,28,30,29,29515,80917,37780,99549,807,99548,99550],"class_list":["post-219487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-american-college-of-surgeons","tag-bicycle-helmet","tag-e-bike","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-head-injuries","tag-joe-dimaggio-childrens-hospital","tag-memorial-healthcare-system","tag-smith-lacoste","tag-south-florida","tag-trauma-injuries","tag-varren-lacoste"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}