BICYCLE SAFETY IS A TOP PRIORITY
By Steve Bina
Bicycle safety has been a recurring theme around the industry and is gaining increasing importance. It has also been presented as a leading concern in the last couple of issues of the Bicycle Business Reporter. Certainly, dedicated bike lanes on public roads, speed cameras and other infrastructure safety measures have been effective with more needed. Thus, great concern was raised when most of these things, known as “Proven Safety Countermeasures,” were removed by the Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration in the latest funding requests. Industry associations are working to have these measures reinstated.
Infrastructure is just one aspect of safety for bicycle usage. Another is education, especially the rules of the road, which oft times are ignored. I’ve seen adolescent bicycle riders on sidewalks. I’ve seen them cruising down the middle of the street. I’ve seen them ride through intersections, ignoring a stop sign, without slowing down, in many of these scenarios multiple times.
Notice I said above “adolescent” bicycle riders. Unfortunately, I’ve also seen adult bicycle riders doing the same thing.
I’ve been riding bicycles for over 60 years. I’ve owned and ridden BMX bikes, road bikes, mountain bikes, almost any kind of bike there is (I’ve ridden but not owned an e-bike). I’ve ridden as a child, a teenager, and continue to ride as an adult. While I’m not proud of it and have amended my practice, I too didn’t always obey the rules of the road.
I don’t want to downplay the importance of physical infrastructure, but for this piece I want to focus on education and licensing and registration. Now, before the mob shows up again on my front lawn with torches and pitchforks, I want to emphasize that I’m not advocating for either of those things. Rather, I’m hoping to start a conversation within the industry worth having.
Learning how to ride a bicycle is a rite of passage for children and their parents. I vividly remember when I first learned to ride a bicycle, initially with training wheels, and wanting to desperately be able to balance without them.
I also vividly remember teaching my daughter how to ride. She also started with training wheels, but kept telling me she could ride without them. I found a suitable big empty parking lot, took off the training wheels, ran behind her holding the saddle in my hand, encouraging her to pedal and ride on. As she rode on, I let go and watched her continue on two wheels across the parking lot, wobbling a bit, but staying upright. As she turned around, she saw I was no longer aiding her and was riding on her own. A big smile spread across her face, and she rode back towards me. From that point on, she was a bicycle rider.
Every parent experiences this with a feeling of pride and accomplishment. They also, as I did, experience a bit of fear. Will your child be safe from injury should they fall? (They all fall!) You’ll give them a helmet and tell them to wear it whenever they are riding. You’ll tell them to be careful around cars and not ride out into traffic. You tell them to obey the rules of the road when they ride on public roads.
Yet, at some point they will ignore all your warnings. As a result, that child’s bicycle riding habits will become ingrained and likely stay with them throughout their lives. It is imperative that bicycle retailers and parents instruct their customers and children in safe riding habits so that this is the behavior that sticks. Peer pressure is a powerful thing with young people, but it can be overcome with continued education and observation.
Fast forward to today and the proliferation of electric bicycles. Because e-bikes are called “bicycles,” riders use them with no more thought than they have always used a bicycle. That one factor may be a significant contributing factor to the dangerous riding habits being observed. Again, this can be overcome with continued education and observation.
A good example of what this could look like is the RidePermit program, a student e-bike program sold to school districts around the country on an annual subscription basis. If a school district has a campus policy for e-bikes (plus electric scooters and hoverboards), RidePermit organizes the policy and permissible micro-mobility devices. Each device is checked against state law and the district’s rules. The system then issues a permit for use. RidePermit is explained further in the October edition of Bicycle Retailer, or you can go to ridepermit.com.
How e-bikes are ridden and where they are ridden has been causing an elevated level of conflict with other traffic and pedestrians. As a consequence, numerous jurisdictions around the country have enacted laws regulating who can ride certain e-bikes and where/how they can be ridden. Some jurisdictions have established a minimum age to ride an e-bike. Some require a license to ride. Some require registration. Some require insurance.
Yet many more do not. And maybe that’s a contributing factor, too. Would it be so bad if more jurisdictions required a license and registration to ride an e-bike? Mandating a license would require an operator’s test akin to what’s needed to earn an automobile driver’s license. I opine that adds another facet to educating bicycle riders. I appreciate that such a requirement might put a damper on sales, so perhaps some limits to what needs a license would be in order.
There is a troubling increase in e-bike incidents all across the country. In California, there has been a significant increase in police pursuits, street takeovers, and fatal crashes, taking the lives of innocent pedestrians and sending scores of riders to the hospital. Admittedly, products termed “e-motos” are a big part of these accidents, but enough involve CPSC-defined e-bikes to be of equal concern. A study by researchers at the University of California, San Diego found crashes and injuries involving e-bikes have dramatically increased, with many of the injured being 14 or younger. According to the study, between 2018 and 2024, e-bike riders were involved in 4,035 collisions. The study also noted that when compared to injuries sustained on normal bicycles, e-bike riders suffered more serious and severe injuries.
Last May, Orange County prosecutors established an e-bike and e-moto prosecution unit to review possible criminal charges against minors, adults, and parents involving electric bicycles. The unit will also assess the possibility of charges against adults who knowingly allow their children to ride illegal e-motorcycles.
In addition, there is a growing movement to address the hazardous riding behavior exhibited by some e-bike riders. Yes, most e-bike riders do so safely, yet the increased volume of e-bikes inevitably leads to an increase (perceived or otherwise) of hazardous riding behavior. Citizens take notice and voice their concerns to local law enforcement and elected officials. As a result, this past September, in Orange County, California, the district attorney’s office launched an e-bike buy-back program modeled on gun buy-back programs.
It should be of great concern to the industry that a comparison between e-bikes and guns has been fostered, and that an elected official views them as equally dangerous items. Perhaps more concerning is the response of the local population, which was positive.
Bicycle safety is not just an infrastructure issue.
Contact Steve Bina: steve@humanpoweredsolutions.com