Submitted by Dave Hock
We don’t need more ebike laws.
Here is something scary. Ride on the Bayshore Bikeway and have an e-bike whiz by from behind doing well over 35mph, giving no audible warning, with no helmet, no hands on the handle bars, both hands and eyes on their phone, and ear buds in.
Our candidates for city council all called out e-bike safety as a campaign topic. We don’t need the council to pass new laws. We have plenty of existing laws that just need to be enforced:
- A helmet law that requires children under 18 to wear a properly strapped helmet
- Speeding laws that limit the speed and power of e-bikes
- Distracted driving laws that disallow use of cell phones while driving
- Reckless driving laws that disallow popping wheelies and other dangerous behavior.
- And of course we have the new “driving on sidewalk” law
What we need is enforcement, and with our council-manager form of government, only the city manager and police chief can control what is enforced and when.
I have the utmost respect for our police officers but it may be that police don’t have resources to enforce e-bike laws. But if our police chief and city manager can expend resources on staking out speed enforcement locations, they can also enforce e-bike laws. I was shocked during the Ride the Lights when kids were doing loops while riding wheelies, dangerously close to others including little kids on bikes. Unfortunately the officer leading the parade ignored this behavior.
Some ideas from this layperson include engaging the schools. If a child shows up without a properly secured helmet, take away their e-bike parking priviledges. Also have police stake out the Bayshore Bikeway during school “rush hour”with a radar gun and watch for other violations.
I sometimes wonder if candidates don’t want existing laws enforced because if laws were enforced, candidates would run out of issues to campaign on.
Dave Hock
