Trying to avoid an e-mergency: Rocklin Police work to educate the public about e-bikes

In an effort to avoid a catastrophic accident and keep the community safe, Rocklin Police Department officers take an education-first method toward dealing with e-bike issues. Traffic Officer Andrew Barrington said in the fall he was seeing an e-bike accident almost every week, and now that the weather is warming up again, he expects to see those incidents more frequently. "The faster you go, the less time you give yourself and other motorists time to react to you and then injury potential goes up with speed," he said. "I hate to sound grim about it, but it's kind of only a matter of time." When it comes to e-bikes, Rocklin officers want parents to be aware and informed, and know what is legal and what is not. There are three types of legal e-bikes, and what classifies an e-bike is that it has pedals. Class 1 & 2 bikes have a top speed of 20 miles per hour and anyone can ride those as long as they are wearing a helmet. Class 3 bikes reach up to 28 mph and can only be used by riders 16 and up. One of the more concerning things Barrington said he has seen in neighborhoods is the prevalence of pocket bikes, which are essentially smaller electronic dirt bikes. "They are not advertised as street legal, but they do look like an e-bike," he said. "And they are significantly faster." He said pocket bikes are designed to go 45 mph but he has heard they can go faster. They are essentially illegal motorcycles in the eyes of the law. When it comes to enforcement, Barrington said he isn't out to stop any child on an e-bike. "I'm stopping kids who are doing something dangerous," he said. "They are rolling through stop signs, they're doing hundred-foot-long wheelies or they are riding in the wrong direction." The most dangerous behaviors Barrington said he sees is when children ride on the wrong side of the road or are blowing through stop signs at full speed. "What we want is for everyone to understand that these risks associated with some of these bikes are so much different than some of the things we've seen in the past with just traditional bicycles or scooters," said Rocklin Police Chief Ruston Banks. Barrington said one of the biggest concerns is many e-bike riders don't always know the rules of the road. He said e-bikes are most popular between the ages of 12-15. "They have no formal training and they don't know what they don't know, right? And then you hand them a vehicle, which can do more than 30 miles per hour, and it's just a recipe for disaster," Barrington said. In an effort to educate the target populations, the Rocklin Police Department has visited local middle schools to give presentations on e-bike safety. They have also worked with the Rocklin Unified School District to provide informational pamphlets to the parent population. "Education is the biggest component because I can stop one kid at a time and educate one parent at a time, but if we reach out and touch hundreds of kids and hundreds of parents, that's going to make a bigger difference," Barrington said. Barrington said when he stops a child on an e-bike for unsafe behavior, it always ends up with a phone call to the parents. And if the child is riding a pocket bike, usually the parent has to come and pick up the vehicle since it is not street legal. Banks said he wants parents to be aware of the high speeds of the pocket e-bikes. "I want parents to understand the risks associated with this new mode of transportation," he said. "We've never seen a 30-miles-per-hour-plus powered dirt bike on the bike racks, and now we have a faster version of that. It's more immediate power." Barrington said if children are involved in accidents on pocket bikes, the parents could be held liable. "If you're riding a pocket bike or your kid is riding a pocket bike and they get in a crash, insurance will come into play and fault will come into play," he said. "That's something parents don't think about. If it's a pocket bike, yeah, you would need to insure that." One positive fact Barrington pointed out was that helmet compliance is up, specifically for children riding e-bikes. He said he often sees children wearing even dirt bike helmets on their e-bikes.