Op/Ed: E-Bike/E-Moto Legislation Doesn’t Absolve Schools from Getting Unsafe Motos Off Campuses

It’s become a common headline no matter where you live in the state. So many crashes are attributed to “e-bikes” that it looks like an e-bike epidemic.  And if you follow what’s going on in Sacramento, “e-bike”  bashing is all the rage.

But if you take a closer look, it turns out the problem isn’t e-bikes; it’s e-motos — the throttle-activated electric motor two-wheelers capable of providing assistance above 20 mph.  Under existing state law, e-motos are not street legal.  Yet they are what youth are mostly riding these days, in ever-increasing numbers.

Governor Gavin Newsom earned applause this month for signing Assembly Bill 1579, a bill requiring the California Department of Education to develop an e-bike training program for 7th to 12th graders.  Training kids how to ride e-bikes is a laudable goal, but it’s not going to solve the problem of kids riding dangerous e-motos. The problem isn’t only how they ride them; it’s that they are riding them at all.

But there is a way to solve that problem.

Based on working with school and law enforcement officials for more than two yearx, a straightforward fix is obvious. Schools should ban electric throttle devices, and work with the police to enforce the bans where the devices are parked five days a week, seven hours a day — the school bike corrals.

To assist the schools and police, we have prepared a Practical Guide with three policy options.  It is available on the E-bike Access website.  Our recommended option is to ban all throttle devices — Class 2 ebikes and e-motos.  

Another option is to ban only e-motos but then the school and police must distinguish between legal Class 2 e-bikes and illegal e-motos — a process that most have found quite challenging.  And with the relatively few Class 2 e-bikes compared to the large percentage of e-motos, it’s hardly worth the effort.  Banning all throttle devices is much more effective.

Recognizing the difficulty in telling the difference, we have created the first and, so far, only list of e-moto brands.  It’s on our website and called Rogue E-Moto Gallery — adopting the term from a CalBike alert.  As schools and police tend to focus on the pedal-less variety of e-motos like Surrons and Talarias, the number of other e-moto brands grows weekly.  We will continue to update and expand our Rogue Gallery the best we can.  

But Sacramento Can Help

This isn’t to say there’s nothing that the state can do to help reduce e-moto crashes…and good news is that one bill that does address the e-moto problem has been sitting on the Governor’s desk.  It’s Senate Bill 1167, and it would require e-motos sellers to tell consumers that what they are selling are not e-bikes.  This bill will have a much greater impact than requiring schools to teach bike safety.

Regardless of activity in Sacramento, community leaders should not be lulled into thinking that they are off the hook. Nothing could be further from the truth, Sacramento may try to fix the safety issues around illegal e-motos, but enforcement will continue to be at the local level..  Without local enforcement, new laws won’t amount to much.

However, If schools adopt the policy we recommend, and if police will help them enforce it, e-motos will recede as a problem, and our youth will be safer.  And Sacramento can turn its sights to other pressing problems that they have a better chance of solving with new legislation.

Bob Mittelstaedt is a retired lawyer, avid e-biker, and co-founder of E-Bike Access which is dedicated to expanding access for legal e-bikes and combatting illegal e-motos. He consults with state and local governments, school officials and law enforcement on how to address e-bikes and e-motos.