E-bike complaints have become a growing concern for Yucaipa police, but the department is taking an approach that starts with education rather than enforcement. Rather than beginning with citations and bike impoundments, the Yucaipa Police Department has been working with the Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified School District to teach young riders the rules of the road, the differences between e-bike classifications and the potential consequences of unsafe or illegal riding.
The department held an e-bike safety presentation Sept. 2 led by Deputy Bobbie Jones, the department’s school resource officer, and Deputy Austin Bremer of the traffic division. The presentation is part of an ongoing effort to educate students and parents about e-bike safety and California’s regulations.
“The e-bike presentation is our station’s way of some proactive education. We work jointly with the school district to teach basic safety guidelines,” Bremer said. The effort comes after e-bikes became one of the top complaints received by the department’s traffic division. Bremer said officers have received calls involving reckless riding, wheelies on roadways and other traffic violations, while some collisions have involved juveniles riding e-bikes.
“I’m with our traffic division. So, we handle a lot of the citizen complaints and we attend meetings with the city, and e-bikes were one of our top complaints in the city,” Bremer said.
The department’s response has been to work with students and their families before violations turn into enforcement actions. “With all the complaints we were getting, we wanted to create some type of proactive approach where we could work with the community and children, to attempt to solve the issues proactively, instead of reactively, which would be citing the kids, towing the bikes, things like that,” Bremer said.
Jones said the school district became a natural partner because many of the students riding e-bikes use them to travel to school. “When we came up with a plan to do this, they found the complaints we were getting in the city from the traffic deputies and it made sense because most of the kids, if not all of them, rode to school,” Jones said.
“We thought another way would be to get the school district on board, to help out, and make sure that if we get these kids to have to go to our class and register (e-bikes) to ride to school, then we’ll know which bikes are registered and are supposed to be there.”
The school district has helped distribute information to parents before the classes, and Jones said the program has so far been successful.
Attendance has varied. About 50 students and 25 to 30 parents attended the first presentation in the morning, while another class drew about 30 students and 15 to 20 parents. Jones said parents are encouraged to attend because the classes cover not only safe riding practices, but also laws, traffic citations and potential fines. “(The reaction) has been positive the whole time. Every time we talk to parents after, they appreciate us putting on the class and talking to their kids about the dangers of riding e-bike and how to do it properly and safely,” he said. He said parents have also appreciated learning about the financial consequences of violations.
Understanding California’s e-bike laws
California law divides electric bicycles into three classes based primarily on how the motor operates and the speed at which it can assist the rider. Class 1 e-bikes provide pedal assistance only and stop assisting once the bicycle reaches 20 mph. Class 2 e-bikes can be operated using a throttle and have a maximum speed of 20 mph. Class 3 e-bikes provide pedal assistance up to 28 mph and must be equipped with a speedometer. Class 3 riders must be at least 16 years old. Helmets are required for riders and passengers under 18 on all classes of e-bikes, while Class 3 riders must wear a helmet regardless of age. Legal e-bikes generally do not require a driver’s license, registration or license plates, and their motors are limited to 750 watts.
Bremer said officers also spend time explaining the distinction between standard e-bikes and what he described as e-motorcycles. For legal e-bikes, officers teach students to follow the same basic rules that apply to bicyclists on the road, including stopping at stop signs, obeying traffic signals, yielding the right of way and riding safely.
The requirements are different for e-motorcycles. Depending on how the vehicle is classified, riders may need a driver’s license, motorcycle endorsement, registration and insurance. Bremer said the department’s goal is to help families understand those distinctions before children ride vehicles that are not legal for public streets.
Bremer said the department’s education efforts appear to have had an impact. Bremer estimated that e-bike complaints have dropped by 80% to 90% since the department began its proactive approach, attributing the decrease to students learning and applying the rules of the road. “Kids are learning the rules of the road, and now it seems like they’re actually applying it, which is leading to a significant cutdown in calls for service and California vehicle code violations like running stop signs or resulting in traffic collisions,” Bremer said.
For police, the goal is not simply fewer citations. There are fewer dangerous encounters on Yucaipa’s roads. Bremer encouraged parents to take an active role by learning the laws themselves and talking with their children about where and how they ride.