The City of Los Alamitos has introduced an ordinance that will give police the ability to cite e-bike riders for what they deem as “unsafe” conduct, admittedly keeping the ordinance broad due to a variety of factors.
Los Al Police Chief Michael Claborn told the Council at its January meeting that it has already complied with a recent Orange County Grand Jury report to create e-bike safety classes, and the introduction of an ordinance will satisfy the report’s second requirement
“In relation to the Orange County grand jury report, we were mandated to provide e-bike safety training courses, which we did, and the second part was to expand on the municipal codes for enforcement to improve the safety of these e-bikes,” the police chief said.
The exponential growth of electric bikes and the speed with which they operate has made e-bikes a growing problem in many communities throughout Orange County and elsewhere.
Claborn was immediately peppered with questions from the Council regarding e-bike safety and about various aspects of the pending ordinance.
Mayor Pro-tem Tanya Doby said she read that e-bikes can travel at nearly 39 miles per hour on a sidewalk. “So my question is, what, if anything, is within the realm of possibility to limit or restrict e-bikes or just no e-bikes on the sidewalk,” she asked/
“Is there anything that can be added for that,” she wondered?
Capt. Kain Gallaugher, the police officer Claborn said has headed up the issue within the department told Doby that the ordinance classifies ebikes that travel more than 20 miles per hour as a Class 3 e-bike, which are technically not permitted to operate on sidewalks.
In practicality, said Gallaugher, the code governs the use of e-bikes on sidewalks much the way vehicle codes govern the use of motor vehicles on streets.
“It regulates the speed at which somebody travels on an e-bike on the sidewalk in a matter of speed that which is very similar to the vehicle code and vehicles traveling on a roadway,” the police official said.
“For instance, if a child were to be riding on an e-bike on the sidewalk while pulling a wheelie, or if they were speeding down a wet sidewalk where they would be unable to stop, and if any of those prevailing conditions that officer feels they could be unsafe, that would be a violation to this municipal code,” he said.
“So we can’t set speed on a sidewalk,” asked Doby?
“We can enforce speed on the sidewalk but the officer would have to determine that the speed at which the operator is traveling is unsafe, based on the conditions,” Gallaugher said.
“I’m looking for something, whether it be signage, whether it be pushed out on social media, whether it would be added to classes, something that could really drive home the the fact that you can only go so fast on sidewalks on an e-bike,” she maintained.
Gallaugher said the difficulty of putting a specific number (miles per hour) in the code, most of these e-bikes are not equipped with a speedometer. So it would be very difficult to say you can’t go over 15 miles per hour when the child has no way to determine at what speed they are actually going.”
Chief Claborn jumped in to say nor does the police department have the ability to enforce e-bike speed limits.
“The expectation of having an officer sit there with a radar gun and shoot radar for e-bikes would be unrealistic,” the Chief said.
“Well, based on that,” said Mayor Shelley Hasselbrink, “then should we just say no ebikes on sidewalks,” she asked?
Claborn said the California vehicle code gives e-bike users the right to ride on sidewalks.
“Can we narrow that down with our city ordinance just because we’re asking these kids to use common sense,” asked Hasselbrink?
“That’s why we have the ability to say that it is prevailing conditions,” said Claborn, “because there are some sidewalks, we can find that are in wide open spaces that if a class 2 e-bike were going 20 miles per hour on, there’s no condition, in and of itself, that would make that unsafe,” said Claborn.
“But the minute somebody is in the roadway or on the sidewalk or in the area, that would then make that unsafe,” he added.
Claborn emphasized that the ordinance has to be general to allow officers to be able to determine what is unsafe. “If an officer can articulate why they think that speed is unsafe, e-bike riders can be cited.”
He said the city is using a third-party vendor to administrate and collect the fines and the city has yet to establish its own traffic school, but they are watching other cities trying various measures.
“There is a city that is doing a trial where they are citing and then having an alternative to paying a fine, but they are mandating that the parent has to go with them to sit through the class,” said Claborn.
Council member Jordan Nefulda wanted to know how officers could ensure that they cited the right kids, noting that most 13.and 14-year-olds don’t have identification cards. Also, he asked whether the city, under the new code, would impound the bikes.
Gallaugher said “there are several different ways” police go about getting a positive ID on somebody that doesn’t actually have a valid ID, and sometimes that is using school resources or contacting a parent or responsible party.
Council member Emily Hibard asked about the fine structure, which is $100 for the first infraction, $200 for the second infraction, and $500 for a third infraction, wanting to know if there would be any financial burden on the city to collect the fines.
Gallaugher said e-biking citations would be handled much like parking citations. Saying even if they go to collections, there is no cost to the city.
Under the municipal code, Claborn said ultimately, any e-bike citations issued to kids or teenagers would not follow them and would have no impact on their future driving records.