Los Altos eyes [limited] ban on e-bikes
Scott Mace
Los Altos council eyes ban on e-bikes
Would limit rides on sidewalks
By Braden Cartwright, Daily Post Staff Writer
Palo Alto Daily Post, June 7, 2025
Los Altos City Council will consider cracking down on e-bikes after city employees reported teenagers riding on sidewalks, weaving through traffic, popping wheelies and not wearing helmets.
Council on Tuesday will vote on an ordinance that would ban e-bikes on the sidewalk, unless the rider is under 12 years old or the road doesn’t have a safe bike lane.
The ordinance would also require helmets and limit e-bikes to one rider at a time. Groups of e-bike riders would only be allowed to ride in rows of two, and riding on school campuses would be illegal.
Acrobatics, tricks or stunts wouldn’t be allowed.
Parts of the ordinance are the same as state law, but having local rules will allow police officers to issue fines instead of sending tickets to traffic court, Capital Improvement Manager Steven Son said in a report for council.
Fines would be $50 for the first offense, $75 for the second offense and $100 for the third offense.
Son told the Complete Streets Commission in October that he’s seen four people riding on a single e-bike.
“Some of the e-bikes I see utilizing our downtown area as a playground,” Son said. “They’re stopping wherever they want. They could drive wherever they want, pop a curb. They’re doing what teenagers would do on a bicycle, but the difference is there’s a motor that’s now involved.”
Sgt. Michael Taylor said he gets regular complaints from downtown businesses about bikes on the sidewalk.
“But there’s no state law that says that they can’t be, so that’s where it’s tough for us,” Taylor told commissioners.
Where are their parents?
Commissioner Stacey Banerjee said some parents aren’t doing their job.
“Because I’ve seen what goes on downtown, and it’s not just that I’ve seen it once and never seen it again. I’ve repetitively seen it, and it’s shocking,” Banerjee said.
Commissioners in January recommended banning sidewalk riding only in the downtown area.
But police officers have seen similar behavior around Los Altos High School, in other business districts and throughout the city, Son said in his report for council.
“Limiting restrictions to downtown would not effectively educate residents on the proper use of e-bikes and e-scooters,” Son said.
She ran on this
Councilwoman Sally Meadows last year campaigned on making the streets of Los Altos safer, even if that means losing some of the city’s rural feel.
She said she wants to see brighter crosswalks, more green paint, protected bike lanes and renovated shoulders.
“It does make it feel a little less rural. But when you’re balancing safety, especially when you’re talking about kids and routes to school, I think you’ve got to go with doing what we can to make things safe,” Meadows said in a campaign interview.
Scott Seligman
>
>Would limit rides on sidewalks
>By Braden Cartwright, Daily Post Staff Writer
>Palo Alto Daily Post, June 7, 2025
>
>Los Altos City Council will consider cracking down on e-bikes after city
>employees reported teenagers riding on sidewalks, weaving through traffic,
>popping wheelies and not wearing helmets.
Few of the electric vehicles that they're hoping to regulate are
actually e-bikes as defined by the vehicle code. Any vehicle with a
throttle that can exceed 20 MPH on flat ground is not an e-bike, and
thus will not be subject to this ordinance.
Scott
William Sellin
714.943.3678
WASe...@gmail.com
Infrastructure Review Committee
Area Liaison to Caltrans District 12
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Jim Baross
Scott Seligman
>We all should be saying “Electric Bicycle” vs e-Moped & e-Motorcycle which are
>all defined in the CVC.
This proposed ordinance spells it out fully as "electric bicycle" and cites
CVC 312.5 explicitly. In certain parts of the ordinance they shorten it
to "e-bicycle", which in context is clearly a reference to "electric bicycle"
as defined earlier in the ordinance.
Electric mopeds and motorcycles (licensed or otherwise) are not mentioned,
either directly or indirectly.
Scott
Scott Mace
Here's the latest story from Los Altos area about the proposed
ban. -- Scott Mace
Risky e-bikes lead to rules
Los Altos mayor worried of serious crash
By Braden Cartwright, Daily Post Staff Writer
Palo Alto Daily Post, June 12, 2025
Two teenagers were riding on an e-bike in Los Altos a couple of weeks ago, carrying Starbucks drinks with their helmets dangling from their handlebars, when they lost control and crashed, Mayor Pete Dailey said at a discussion about cracking down on unsafe cycling behavior.
A young woman lost all of her teeth before graduation, Daily said at a council meeting on Tuesday.
“It’s only a matter of time before it’s a really, really serious accident,” Dailey said.
The city is working on an ordinance that would ban sidewalk riding and stunts on all types of bikes. No more than two cyclists would be allowed to ride next to each other, and bikes could only have one rider at a time.
Parts of the ordinance are the same as state law, but having local rules will allow police officers to issue fines instead of sending tickets to traffic court.
Palo Alto resident Gaby Lee said she is watching what happens in Los Altos after her parents were hit on June 5 in Palo Alto at the corner of East Meadow Drive and Ross Road.
A teenager in a group of five to eight boys hit Lee’s parents on the sidewalk and knocked them both to the ground, Lee said.
“There were no apologies, and they fled the scene,” Lee said in an email on Saturday. Lee said her dad was concussed, her mom injured her legs and they both went to the hospital in an ambulance.
Lee said she posted about the incident on social media, and many residents agreed they were unhappy about how teens behave on e-bikes.
She is hoping the city of Palo Alto can crack down like Los Altos.
“They are loud, disruptive, dangerous, doing tricks,” Lee said. “Obviously they should not be on sidewalks where pedestrians are walking.”
Stanford student died
Stanford student Arashar “Chad” Chadder, 21, was struck and killed by a car around 3 a.m. on May 31 while riding an e-bike on campus near Palm Drive and Arboretum Road. The driver of a Honda Accord remained at the scene, and drugs and alcohol weren’t involved, police said. The CHP isn’t providing more information about the nature of the crash while the investigation is ongoing, Officer Jovita Ojeda said in an email on Tuesday.
How it started
The discussion in Los Altos started in October when Capital Improvement Manager Steven Son showed pictures to the Complete Streets Commission of kids popping wheelies and riding on handlebars. Son said e-bike riders are treating downtown like a playground.
“They’re doing what teenagers would do on a bicycle, but the difference is there’s a motor that’s now involved,” he said.
Council was split on Tuesday over whether police officers should be required to give riders a warning before issuing a fine.
Vice Mayor Neysa Fligor advocated for a slower approach, and Councilman Jonathan Weinberg agreed.
“(In) August, you’re going to see kids violating every single line in this ordinance,” Fligor said. “So I think we need to be deliberate and intential about how we’re going to educate our parents and student population.”
Teens ‘game the system’
But Dailey said some kids have an attitude and need a penalty right away.
“Guess what? 16-year-olds love to game the system. And all it takes is for one to find out that the ordinance is written with a required warning, and they’ll all exploit it,” Dailey said.
Sgt. Michael Taylor said the police department would use discretion and try to warn riders before issuing a citation, which starts at $50 and goes to $75 for a second offense and $100 for a third offense.
“I suspect if (officers) see someone with training wheels going down the sidewalk in front of their house, there’s not going to be a big bust,” Councilman Larry Lang said.
Scott Mace
Los Altos passed its e-bike ordinance this week. Details follow. -- Scott
===
E-bike crackdown gets council’s OK
Unsafe behavior leads to change in Los Altos
By Braden Cartwright, Daily Post Staff Writer
Palo Alto Daily Post, June 27, 2025
Los Altos City Council has voted 3-2 to ban bicyclists from
riding on the sidewalk in an attempt to crack down on unsafe
behavior on e-bikes.
“People shouldn’t have to feel that this motorized thing is going
to come up behind them and knock them over,” Councilwoman Sally
Meadows said on Tuesday.
Argument against
Vice Mayor Neysa Fligor and Councilman Jonathan Weinberg voted
against the new ordinance on Tuesday.
Weinberg said the state should be regulating e-bikes because
having inconsistent rules between cities will be confusing for
cyclists.
“The type of regulation that we’re trying to put in this
ordinance really needs to be from the top down,” Weinberg said.
Fligor said she wanted to see a phased approach, with warnings and
an education period rather than cracking down right away.
But Meadows, Mayor Pete Daily and Councilman Larry Lang said the
ordinance would make Los Altos safer since the use of e-bikes has
gone up.
The ordinance also bans more than one rider on an e-bike at a
time and says that no more than two cyclists are allowed to ride
next to each other.
Parts of the ordinance are the same as state law, but having
local rules will allow police officers to issue a $50 fine instead
of sending tickets to traffic court.
Unsafe behavior
The city stated working on the ordinance in October after
residents and city employees saw kids popping wheelies, riding on
handlebars and treating downtown like a playground.
“They’re doing what teenagers would do on a bicycle, but the
difference is there’s a motor that’s now involved,” Capital
Improvement Manager Steven Son told the Complete Streets
Commission.
Daily said a young woman lost all of her teeth before graduation
when she fell off an e-bike without a helmet.
“It’s only a matter of time before it’s a really, really serious
accident,” he said.