Walnut Creek Faces E-Bike Risks, Rewards: How The City Is Addressing The Challenge

WALNUT CREEK, CA — Walnut Creek is rolling out an action for sharing roadways and sidewalks with e-bikes. The plan focuses on educating teens and their parents about the risks and rules of e-bikes — for now. Police will be ready to step in when necessary until city leaders are prepared to tackle enforcement. But it is unclear how heavily city leaders and police are willing to tread.

Walnut Creek, like many cities, counties, and states, is faced with balancing the utility and popularity of e-bikes with the risks. They align with sustainability goals because they emit less pollution than automobiles, are convenient for commuters, and go faster than conventional bikes.

They are also a source of ire among residents and a growing source of serious accidents that overwhelmingly involve teens and tweens.

Councilmember Craig DeVinney, who is also a doctor, said he is seeing severe injuries associated with e-bike accidents. "And I'm afraid we will see more of them," he said during the Tuesday council meeting.

E-bikes are electric mobility devices, a category that also includes e-scooters, e-unicycles, e-skateboards, e-hoverboards, and the Segway. The basic components involve a battery, controller, and motor. Accessory components include the displays, throttles, and sensors. Their popularity and numbers quickly exploded. In 2023, U.S. companies imported 990,000 electric cars, a number lower than the 800,000 sold in 2022. In California, rebate programs encourage e-bikes as an alternative to cars, the American College of Physicians reported.

Offering speed, ease of use, and a touch of adventure, motor-assisted bicycles provide a popular alternative to traditional bikes, according to Jennifer Rodriguez, injury prevention coordinator for the Injury Prevention Program at Miller Children’s and Women’s Hospital. The speed and adventure make them especially attractive to teenagers, although adults are not immune to speed or adventure.

The focus now, in cities and counties across the country, is on making the rules clear and widely known, while developing the necessary infrastructure and regulations to keep up with a fast-moving target.

Walnut Creek is focused on information campaigns, including a website, social media, and staff are scheduling presentations on bike and e-bike safety for schools and teachers’ associations. The Walnut Creek Police Department and city staff organized a "bike rodeo" and want to hold more.

Walnut Creek police also stopped nine cyclists during an operation on Aug. 22 and gave out eight warnings, and impounded one electric off-road motorcycle. On Oct. 8, Walnut Creek police and East Bay Regional Park District authorities gave out 10 citations and six warnings. Officers will also attend a special training to learn more about e-bikes and how to instruct people to ride them safely.

"We don't want to make people afraid to ride e-bikes," Walnut Creek Police Department Capt. Jeff Slater told councilmembers during the meeting.

Laws are only now being put into place because e-bike popularity grew faster than public safety measures. Like vaping, consumers shouldered responsibility for understanding the rules and self-regulating their purchases, as one organization put it. The responsibility has been landing on pedestrians, motorists, and other riders. Walnut Creek city councilmember Cindy Silva said Tuesday night that e-bikes top complaints.

Complaints are mainly about teenagers driving too fast and not following the rules of the road, Betsy Burkhart, spokesperson for Walnut Creek, said in September. A major contributor to complaints are e-bikes configured with a "pedal assist" to provide a burst of power, allowing riders to accelerate quickly without pedaling, but they stop at 20 miles per hour. In-board controllers that limit speeds can be deactivated in these "Class 2" bikes by a magnet or a series of keystrokes, according to the American College of Physicians, allowing speeds greater than 37 miles per hour, which are comparable to motorcycles.

Marin County's electric bicycle safety pilot program allows the county and its cities to adopt ordinances prohibiting individuals under 16 from operating a Class 2 e-bike through 2029.

Read more: https://patch.com/california/w...