22-05-2025
Student e-bike riders in five East Bay cities will see more safety enforcement
E-bikes have become hugely popular, especially with young people, and there are concerns that innovation is outpacing common sense.
When the school bell rings at Stone Valley Middle School, the kids head for home. But when it comes to how they get there, times have changed.
The electric bicycle, or e-bike, has taken Stone Valley by storm, and on Wednesday, local bike safety advocates Alan Kalin and Bruce Bilodeau were welcomed in to make a count of the number and types of e-bikes in the school's bicycle rack area.
The change has been astounding.
"I was here in February and counted 51 electric motorcycles, known as e-motos. Today, there are 70. That's only in three months. You can only imagine how many more by the time the school starts again in September," said Kalin.
As for regular bikes, they counted 12.
Kalin said Stone Valley no longer has a bike rack. It's now a parking lot.
"E-bikes are amazing. They really are. But these are not e-bikes. These are not e-bikes," said Kalin. "They are electric motorcycles, and there is a difference. They weigh anywhere from 80 to 100 pounds. They will go anywhere from 20 to 35 miles per hour, depending on how you modify it."
Class 2 e-bikes are the most popular, with a top speed of 20 miles per hour, and as a result, the law says they can be ridden at any age without a license. But the speed limit on many of them can be remotely raised or eliminated altogether through an online app.
"The (e-bike) classes are dependent as far as their top speed goes. But when they modify them, they go from 20 mph to up to 50 mph," said Capt. Miguel Campos with Dublin Police Services.
On Wednesday, Dublin joined other nearby departments for an E-bike Safety Enforcement Day. They ended up issuing 36 warnings and 12 citations for reckless riding.
"We just did it in the morning, and we're going to focus on after-school," said Campos. "During the summertime, we're going to ramp that up because kids are now going to be out of school, so they're going to be riding these vehicles all hours of the day."
But back at the middle school, Bilodeau said he's not sure how they can even enforce the current rules when the bikes can be modified so easily.
"And that 'Class 2' becomes meaningless," he said. "So, as an enforcement issue for a policeman, he comes up and sees a kid riding this — It's a Class 2. He can't enforce anything. So, they don't. They don't enforce it, and neither can the schools. So, what do you do? And what Al and I are hoping to do is to take that Class 2 and say, kids under 16 should not be riding Class 2, period."
That's a growing sentiment, banning throttle-controlled bikes for anyone under 16.
"They do look fun," said Bilodeau. "But a kid with a throttle on the street? You're asking for trouble. Kids need to know what the consequences are, and they don't have a consequences gene when they're 12."
It wasn't long ago that e-bikes just helped you pedal. Now, they've become full-fledged motorcycles.
Dublin is currently working to draft local ordinances that would regulate how and where e-bikes can be operated. Across the state, lawmakers are racing to catch up to the rapidly evolving technology. And they're probably having to go faster than 20 mph to do it.
