E-bikes have become a popular way for people to get around Erie and surrounding communities, but Erie police said riders need to understand the rules and risks that come with them.<\/p>\n
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This summer, Erie police officers have seen a number of crashes involving e-bikes, motorized scooters and electric scooters. Most recently, a person died following an e-bike crash in Warren over the weekend.<\/p>\n
Officials with the Erie Police Department said one of the biggest concerns is that many of the e-bikes they are seeing exceed the legal limits for speed and motor power.<\/p>\n
Erie police said some riders are weaving through traffic, streets and sidewalks, creating safety concerns for riders, pedestrians and drivers.<\/p>\n
Sgt. Scott Kornetz with the department’s motorcycle unit reviewed the requirements for an electric bike to legally be considered an e-bike. “There’s some rules as far as e-bikes are concerned. Number one, the rider has to be 16 years of age or older. Number two, it has to have less than 750 watts. Number three, it cannot exceed 100 pounds in weight. Number four, it can’t exceed 20 miles per hour on the surface. A lot of them are exceeding 20 miles per hour, sometimes in excess of 40 miles per hour\u201d, explained Sgt. Kornetz.<\/p>\n
Erie police officers said if a vehicle does not meet those requirements, it is no longer classified as an e-bike and may instead be considered a motorcycle.<\/p>\n
That means the regulations are different. Motorcycles must be insured and registered, and riders need the appropriate motorcycle license in addition to a regular Class C driver’s license.<\/p>\n
Police also remind e-bike riders that they must follow basic bicycle laws, including using hand signals, stopping at stop signs and staying in designated bike lanes or on the shoulder when required.<\/p>\n
Another issue police are encountering involve what\u2019s allowed to be ridden in the City of Erie. As Sgt. Kornetz explained, “With the electric vehicles, there’s also the ones that look like skateboards. Those are considered illegal in the city as well as far as sidewalks and streets. It must have operable pedals to be considered an e-bike. If it does not have pedals, it’s just like a small motorcycle, electric scooter. Those are also illegal in the city.”<\/p>\n
Erie police said understanding the difference between an e-bike, motorcycle and electric scooter is important, especially as more of these vehicles are being used on local roads and sidewalks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"E-bikes have become a popular way for people to get around Erie and surrounding communities, but Erie police…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268466,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[1874,113189,30846,30849,136,138,137,5585,3187,113190,5831,74456],"class_list":["post-268465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-accident","tag-bicycle-laws","tag-e-bike","tag-electric-scooter","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-erie-police","tag-motorcycle","tag-road-regulations","tag-traffic-safety","tag-vehicle-classification"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}