E-Bike Smart Marin Can My Teen Still Ride Their E-Bike? A Breakdown of the Marin Civil Grand Jury Report

MCBC has been engaged since the beginning of the e-bike revolution to encourage e-bike use as a viable alternative to driving and to promote safe and courteous riding. Read about MCBC’s detailed and insightful take on the findings of the Marin Civil Grand Jury Report on e-bikes. 

Thanks to a grant from Marin County, MCBC developed a curriculum for responsible e-bike riding. We have taught more than 100 middle and high school students the rules of the road, bike safety, and e-bike-specific handling. We also developed and promoted an e-bike buyers guide to help ensure that parents purchasing an e-bike for their child select one that complies with legal requirements. In all, we are working hard to support e-bike use and encourage safe riding for users of all ages. 

Marin Grand Jury Report on E-bike Safety

In April 2024, the Marin County Civil Grand Jury released a report about e-bike safety titled “With Power Comes Responsibility,” highlighting the potential risks to Marin’s teenage e-bike riders. Jurisdictions across the County are being asked to respond to the report’s findings and detail whether or not they will implement its recommendations. The report recommends the following: 

1. Marin’s Board of Supervisors and each of its municipalities take all necessary steps to adopt an ordinance that would require:

   a. An age limit to operate Class 2 e-bikes, namely 16+;

   b. Helmets for operators of Class 2 e-bikes (regardless of age);

   c. Helmets for all passengers on a Class 2 e-bike (regardless of age).

2. An establishment of a countywide e-bike safety task force.

3. Providing funding for continued e-bike safety classes and education.

While MCBC is broadly supportive of the recommendations to establish an e-bike safety task force and provide funding for e-bike safety classes, we believe the first recommendation should clarify several issues. 

A Marin-SPecific Law

Under current law, these recommendations cannot yet be implemented, as they run counter to the regulations of e-bikes laid out in the California Vehicle Code (CVC). However, the pending bill by Assemblymember Damon Connolly, AB 1778, would permit jurisdictions in Marin only to enact a local ordinance prohibiting people under age 16 from operating a class 2 e-bike and/or requiring all operators of class 2 e-bikes to wear helmets. If the Governor signs the bill, Marin’s jurisdictions will have several options to implement:

1. Adopt an ordinance enforcing the new age restrictions on Class 2 e-bikes, but not require helmets for operators over 18 (remember, all bicycle riders under 18 are already required to wear a helmet on any bike, electric or not)

2. Require helmets for operators of Class 2 e-bikes but not pass an age restriction.

3. Enact both helmet requirements and age restrictions.

One small note: the Grand Jury report recommends that jurisdictions require passengers of Class 2 e-bikes to wear a helmet. However, that power would not be granted if AB 1778 were to pass. 

Consistency is Key

Legal consistency across municipal and County boundaries is a significant concern MCBC has had with AB 1778 since it was converted to a Marin County-only pilot program (initially proposed as a statewide bill but was whittled down). The purpose of having a uniform vehicle code is to ensure that users of our roadway network have a consistent experience when traveling across municipal boundaries. Drivers do not need to question if they are required to wear a seat belt in one city but not another. A stop sign always means the same thing. A troubling consequence of a pilot program that only operates in Marin County is the potential for some jurisdictions to adopt different aspects of AB 1778 or ignore it entirely. 

Few people in Marin could accurately trace the boundaries between Larkspur, Corte Madera, and the unincorporated community of Greenbrae. Unless the three jurisdictions all adopt the same ordinance at the same time, a teen rider traveling along Lucky Drive leaving Redwood High School could find themselves subject to three different legal requirements, all within the course of a few hundred feet. 

Even if all 12 jurisdictions in Marin County adopt the same provisions of AB 1778, the additional matter of between-county travel remains. Few places in California are as well known for people riding their bikes from another county as Sausalito. Every day in summer, many hundreds of riders (an increasing number of them on e-bikes) cross the Golden Gate Bridge and descend Alexander Avenue to Bridgeway in Sausalito. Because of the Marin-only nature of the pilot, many of these riders could be subject to stops and fines that they will not have known about as soon as they reach the north end of the bridge. 

Can it Be Enforced?

There are several difficulties law enforcement would face in implementing the requirements of AB 1778. First, Class 2 e-bikes are not readily identifiable from a distance. Only the act of traveling flat or uphill without pedaling or the presence of a throttle separates them from a Class 1 e-bike, whose legal status would be unchanged. Furthermore, to enforce age limits, law enforcement would have to discern between 15 and 16-year-olds, many of whom do not carry photo identification. 

Shortcomings of the Grand Jury Report 

While we have heard plenty of anecdotal evidence that younger riders are riding recklessly, the Grand Jury Report does not convincingly make the case that Class 2 e-bikes are to blame. First, the Marin County Bicycle Accident Dashboard, which the report relies on, simply does not differentiate between classes of e-bike, making it impossible to account for the relative safety of the three Classes. Second, the dashboard considers “e-bikes” devices such as Sur-Rons and Super73s. MCBC refers to these as “out of class” devices, which are sold to unwitting consumers as e-bikes but are capable of higher speeds than permitted by the current regulatory framework spelled out by the CVC.

MCBC firmly believes these vehicles to be dangerous and has argued against their sale. However, it is already the case that they are illegal to ride for users of any age on streets and pathways, which causes their conflation with legal Class 1 and 2 e-bikes to muddy the findings of the report. Lastly, the report focuses mostly on the disparate crash rates between young people and older riders but makes a recommendation that all operators of Class 2 e-bikes, irrespective of age, wear a helmet. This recommendation strikes us as a non-sequitur and is not backed up by any evidence provided in the report. 

Reaping the Benefits While Addressing Concerns 

MCBC has a 25-year commitment to working toward the safety of our young riders. We recognize that the recent e-bike revolution has brought real growing pains. MCBC supports enforcement against “out-of-class” devices and riders endangering pedestrians by traveling too fast on our County’s many shared-use paths. 

However, we must recognize that by substantially changing the laws governing e-bikes to crack down on a few bad actors, we risk pushing hundreds of law-abiding young riders off their e-bikes and back into their parents’ cars. When used responsibly, e-bikes give our young people the freedom to travel without an adult chauffeur, cleaning our air and reducing traffic at the same time. Do we think that everyone who purchased a Class 2 e-bike for their teen will go out and buy a Class 1 e-bike instead? 

With its challenging traffic and topography, we believe that e-bikes can be a huge boon for a county like Marin. We agree that certain irresponsible bike manufacturers are selling dangerous, mislabeled products to families. But the remedy is not greater regulation on currently legal bicycles, but rather regulation at the state level to stop these bad actors. If we want to encourage people to get out of their cars and get active, the last thing we need is a patchwork of confusing regulations and punitive ticketing.

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