An increase of e-bike usage leads the community to question whether or not regulations should be imposed on these motorized vehicles. "It's just like riding a motorcycle, but it's got an electric motor, and that makes the label ‘e-bike’ somewhat misleading," police chief Mark Rowden said. Photo courtesy of Luca Campioni, Unsplash.
By Will Gaffey
A peaceful evening stroll interrupted by a sinister buzzing noise.
This sound is not produced by a cicada or a mosquito, but rather a herd of middle schoolers flying down the street on their e-bikes.
Over the past few years, e-bikes have been on an exponential rise in Highland Park, and as community awareness has increased, some Highland Park residents have begun voicing concerns about how this new, and potentially dangerous technology threatens the community.
“In my opinion, they're motorized vehicles,” police chief Mark Rowden said. “It's just like riding a motorcycle, but it's got an electric motor, and that makes the label ‘e-bike’ somewhat misleading.”
This misnomer combined with the irresponsibility of younger riders makes for a dangerous and potentially deadly combination.
“I see a lot of middle schoolers flying down streets like Hillcrest, Baltimore, and Lovers on these bikes,” senior Tucker Mattison said. “There’s a big trend of them riding together, not wearing helmets, going 35 [mph], and blowing through stop signs, and it's a major problem.”
Already, reports have come in of community members being inconvenienced and even injured by kids riding these electric vehicles.
“Regardless of how regulation is implemented, I definitely think that this issue needs to be addressed before someone gets seriously injured.”
“Minor injuries and collisions with vehicles happen on a regular basis,” Rowden said. “In addition to that, collisions with pedestrians are super common, and that becomes a whole new problem because that usually happens when kids are riding on the sidewalk.”
Just like when riding a bike, local law requires that kids follow the rules of the road when e-bike riding. Of course, many kids are either unaware or choose to ignore this legal precedent.
“Sidewalks are not made for that kind of traffic,” Rowden said. “In the Park Cities, 28 [mph] for a bike, even on the streets, is way too fast.”
In fact, Mattison has had a harrowing experience with some of these speeding riders.
“I was going down Baltimore a few weeks ago, crossing an intersection at 20 [mph], and all of a sudden I saw an e-bike with two girls on it, wearing no helmets, flying through the stop sign at what had to be 40 [mph],” Mattison said. “If I hadn’t been going so slow, they actually would have smashed into the side of my car and gotten very hurt.”
Ever since that incident, Mattison has been vocal about e-bike regulations in hopes that no other middle-schoolers will become near-pancakes on the side of his car.
“I, for one, think that there should be a minimum age for you to own an e-bike,” Mattison said. “Regardless of how regulation is implemented, I definitely think that this issue needs to be addressed before someone gets seriously injured.”
Freshman Tristan Sun agrees, saying he has to be on the watch when riding his manual scooter to school.
“It can be scary seeing kids riding around at super-fast speeds,” Sun said. “I only ride a scooter, so when I hear them coming down the sidewalk, I need to get out of the way really fast.”
Of course, despite this outcry, regulation isn’t easy. University Park imposed a new ordinance which holds that e-bikes should be treated as any other motorized vehicle, but this approach struggles to address many of the nuances of the issue.
“E-bikes are considered kind of in their own realm at the moment,” Rowden said. “It’s hard to classify them as motor vehicles, so at the moment it's really only possible for us to address it on a case-by-case basis.”
However, a massive crackdown on e-bike usage could heavily impact kids who use e-bikes as transportation to and from school.
"I think it’s important that the needs of kids are taken into consideration if regulation is enforced.”
“If your house is very far from the school, it makes sense to have an e-bike,” Sun said. “My house is decently far from the high school, so it takes me a while to ride my scooter there, and I worry for kids who live further away and rely on these e-bikes to get them to school in reasonable time.”
In fact, Sun is considering purchasing an e-bike due to the convenience they provide.
“I value the exercise component of riding my scooter,” Sun said. “That being said, it could become necessary [to have an e-bike] if I had to ride much farther, so I think it’s important that the needs of kids are taken into consideration if regulation is enforced.”
However, despite regulations, the consequences are still not severe and are difficult to enforce, meaning that a major crackdown is unlikely to occur.
“University Park put a new ordinance into place, and to my understanding, Highland Park is planning on putting one into place as well,” Rowden said. “But really, because it's such a new ordinance, we focus on education and voluntary compliance, so much so that in the most extreme cases the farthest we will usually go is calling [the kids’] parents.”
As more and more kids get their hands on e-bikes, it seems that only time will tell whether these bikes will become a staple of University Park culture, or be excommunicated as a dangerous tool that threatens to pop the bubble.
“I really just hope that something is done before someone gets terribly hurt,” Mattison said. “Whether it is the job of Highland Park parents or law enforcement, it's important that action is taken.”