PodBits™ presents ... E-Bike Mayhem

E-Bike Mayhem — suggestions for ordinances & enforcement proposal to a City
 
Three times I’ve come close to getting hit by a person on an e-bike. I’m not talking just about the power-assisted bikes. They would probably hurt me if I got hit by them, but those bigger, steel framed electric cycles would probably kill or maim me for life because they are so much faster and heavier.
 
The issue with e-bikes is that their drivers think they can switch between being a pedestrian, a bicycle, and a car at will. They are nimble, quick, and unpredictable because they can shoot in and out of sideways, driveways, roads, trails, in between parked cars, etc.
 
Education alone is not going to stop the above style of riding. Unfortunately, most cities currently only have ordinances to “educate” riders. There has to be more towards pinning the responsibility and damages to the rider and their parents if the rider is a minor. There have to be some ways to enforce any ordinance. 
 
The following are additional thoughts, suggestions, and research. Please DM me on Nextdoor with any you have, or leave them in the comments on the post. I will be using them to help my City consider stiffer, better ways to deal with e-bikes, because citizens across the board are complaining about them.
 
  • Start with changing the name of the class of e-“bikes” that are causing the most trouble; change the branding.
    • The issue is not so much the e-power assisted bikes, but with the fully powered e-motorcycles. Start using the term, “e-Cycles.”
  • Classify e-Cycles as motor vehicles (we don’t need to reinvent the wheel, no pun intended)…abstract a vehicle according to:
    • Having an accelerator
    • Having a weight class
    • Regardless of the number of wheels
    • Have top speed of >=20mph
    • Drone or manned vehicle
  • Apply existing CA motor vehicle laws and ordinances to e-Cycles. Again, we don’t need to reinvent the traffic laws. For eCycles,
    • Require license & annual registration
    • Carry minimum insurance (cannot rely on home owner’s or renter’s insurance only…put the risk onto the parents, not on the people injured or on the City or County)
    • List out where these vehicles can and CANNOT go (access)
    • Require Helmets
    • All existing motor vehicle laws, such as stop signs and traffic lights
  • Additional or hybrid modification to ordinances…
    • Allowed to use bicycle lanes?
    • Others modification?
  • Enforcement (this is a challenge). For example, dictating where a vehicle can access is very difficult especially a very nimble vehicle like a bike, unicycle, or floating uni-balls given their nature to be in a certain space for a short time. So let’s install or use tools like: 
    • CCTV; blue light license plate scanners to track sidewalk violations (this is why required license plates are needed; a rider’s identify even with facial recognition is not enough to identify the rider, but with license plates a bill/ticket can be sent to the vehicle owner).
  • Engage citizens to monitor and report; example, City of Tustin has an app for citizens to report issues such as a faulty water sprinkler with photo uploads.

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