In the last week I’ve had three encounters with young teen and sub-teen drivers riding their electric bikes in my Santa Barbara neighborhood. The first one, which took place in the Target parking lot at State and La Cumbre, was pleasant enough. The young man told me he was 12 years old and a sixth grader at La Colina Junior High. He said his parents bought him the bike on the condition that he wear a helmet when riding.
The second took place on La Cumbre when a companion and I unsuccessfully tried to cross a side street. We were suddenly cut off by a trio of young teen drivers, sans helmets, who ran the stop sign at La Cumbre and proceeded as fast as they could toward the mountains. That was followed about 20 seconds later by a police car with its lights flashing. The officer gunned his engine to try to catch up but, from what I could see, the teens split up and went in different directions. About a half minute later a second police car with siren wailing joined the chase. Oopsie, too late.
The third instance occurred on Wednesday on Upper State near Macy’s when a helmeted teen came barreling down the sidewalk toward me at 20 mph or so. My gaze was elsewhere at first and his electric bike was virtually noiseless. I was lucky to step away at the last minute, but I felt woosh of air from the rider as he sped by.
A hundred yards yonder a man in a black coat stopped me to say, “That kid almost hit me, too, but what can we do?”
My answer: we can lobby the City Council to pass an ordinance with actual teeth in it, one requiring teens and sub-teens to be tested and licensed before they can operate electric bikes. In my opinion, motorized children and young teens are a danger to themselves and to the public at large.
