The Martin County Sheriff\u2019s Office is cracking down on illegal electric bikes and reckless riding, shifting its focus from education to strict enforcement.<\/p>\n
WATCH BELOW: ‘We see younger riders. They just don\u2019t have the maturity,’ Nisha Gregory tells WPTV’s Cassandra Garcia<\/p>\n
For months, the sheriff’s office prioritized education regarding e-bike rules and safety.<\/p>\n
“[We] handed out pamphlets, did workshops with them, handed out warning citations,” Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek said.<\/p>\n
Now, the agency’s focus is shifting to enforcement following repeated violations and complaints. Budensiek said the crackdown is a response to growing safety concerns caused by accidents involving children. Last weekend, deputies towed five illegal e-bikes after multiple stops, and tickets were issued.<\/p>\n
“If we catch you on an e-bike that\u2019s illegal you\u2019re going to get ticketed. If we can tow the bike, the bike will be towed. If we can ticket the parent for letting them ride the e-bike we\u2019re going to ticket them also,” Budensiek said.<\/p>\n
Budensiek said a number of factors can result in a ticket.<\/p>\n
“No pedals is a given for us, if it goes over 28 miles an hour or over 750 watts, so there are a lot of e-bikes that are legal but then you transition to how you ride the e-bike recklessly,” Budensiek said.<\/p>\n
Nisha Gregory, owner of K & N Cycling, said e-bikes are easy to use and fun for riders of all ages. <\/p>\n
“A lot of people can go further and faster,” Gregory said.<\/p>\n
While the bikes have many positives, she said they also have unintended consequences.<\/p>\n
“We see younger riders. They just\u2014they don\u2019t have the maturity,” Gregory said. “They\u2019re causing accidents. They\u2019re holding up traffic.”<\/p>\n
With safety in mind, she only sells street-legal bikes and only sells to riders 18 and over.<\/p>\n
“That\u2019s where we stop selling. We see the problem above that\u2014when you start getting into these bikes that can go 40+ miles an hour,” Gregory said.<\/p>\n
As an avid cyclist and a mother, Gregory welcomes the enforcement. <\/p>\n
“I think that there is a space for e-bikes even with children, I think they can be used responsibly, but they do need to be monitored they need to do it safely,” Gregory 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":"The Martin County Sheriff\u2019s Office is cracking down on illegal electric bikes and reckless riding, shifting its focus…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-251884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251884","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=251884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}