Santa Clarita City Council members and staff discussed concerns and solutions last week for something residents have been upset about for months: the rules for e-bikes, e-motorcycles and their riders.
The Public Safety Committee, currently Mayor Bill Miranda and Councilman Jason Gibbs, meets with City Manager Ken Striplin, Lt. Brandon Barclay of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station, and several senior city staffers, to review the latest crime data and address trends.
Since March, the vehicles have come up several times during public comment at council meetings, and in response, Barclay said the SCV Sheriff’s Station has approached the problem from several different angles.
The increased attention from local law enforcement followed more than a dozen complaints at City Council meetings from those concerned that riders’ reckless habits and a lack of speed-limit signage, especially on city paseos and trails, were putting people at risk.
Barclay shared an update on the station’s work and answered questions about parent outreach, policies and what the city and the station are doing together.
The situation involved a lot of “good families and good kids that are riding e-bikes,” which is why the education component is so important.
“We’ve done a couple of e-bike videos to educate the public. And it’s not just about going out there and impounding bikes and citing — it’s about educating folks where they can ride, what they can do,” Barclay said.
“But when they’re not following the rules, that’s when the enforcement piece comes in,” he added.
What’s an e-bike?
One of Miranda’s questions touched on an area that’s often discussed during public comment, in terms of a request for a “mini-overview of what’s legal and what’s not legal?”
Miranda said he walks the paseos with his wife, and there’s usually room for another couple in the opposite direction.
“But, and especially if an electrical bike comes flying by, they’re taking a huge risk,” he said, adding they don’t always walk in a straight line.
“If we tip a little in the wrong direction, well, this guy’s going 20-something miles an hour. We’re going to get hurt, seriously hurt, right?” Miranda said.
Barclay said that’s where the education component comes in — if it goes under 28 mph, it’s an e-bike, he said.
“And that’s allowed,” Barclay said, looking to Striplin for confirmation on city policy.
“If it doesn’t have pedals … it goes into that category,” Striplin said, referring to e-motocycles, which aren’t allowed on the paseos.
Barclay also mentioned an exception that’s also part of the station’s outreach campaign with the city.
“You’re allowed to have an e-bike as long as it’s in a certain classification, and you’re having your helmet and you’re safely equipped,” Barclay said. “What we really don’t want is for them to nip the governor on that e-bike to where it now goes plus 20 miles an hour, or the e-motorcycles, which go up to 70 miles an hour, that are on the paseos.”
Station outreach
Gibbs asked about the impounds, in terms of the age range for those who are having their bikes confiscated.
Barclay said it was typically juveniles, and it’s being done when deputies are trying to stop or prevent a “street takeover,” in which riders organize a meetup and swarm an area, which can make things unsafe for riders and motorists.
Deputies monitoring social media also have been effective in preventing such events from getting out of hand, and in some cases preemptively addressing them.
“We have seen less, but we’ve taken a proactive approach, and we try to reach out to folks before they start,” he said, mentioning one such recent memorial organized for an Antelope Valley teen after his funeral.
“They had one up in Lancaster, and we didn’t want that to trickle down here,” he said.
In terms of the educational component, one thing residents have repeatedly asked for during City Council meetings is more signage for the trails indicating the speed limit.
Rules, enforcement
In addition to a recent educational video about e-bikes made by SCV Sheriff’s Station officials for the city, a pair of teams have been making contacts with riders to inform them of the rules, some of which have changed, Barclay said.
When someone mentioned they saw a rider on the sidewalk, Barclay noted a fairly recent law that changed California Vehicle Code Section 21663 — so now it’s legal to ride bicycles and pedal-assisted bikes on the sidewalk.
Barclay said the station’s Traffic Unit has had 80 contacts with e-bikes and e-motorcycles since March, and issued 17 citations for e-motorcycles, and they’ve impounded six of the vehicles.
Separate from that, the station’s Crime Prevention Unit has conducted nine bike patrols along the paseos and contacted 18 juveniles and adults “to offer that education piece,” Barclay said, referring to a “three-pronged strategy” that involves prevention, education and enforcement.
During that same time period, the CPU impounded four bikes and issued 14 citations.
“And it’s really a multilayered approach to have success with this,” Barclay said. “While to some people, it’s not a big issue — to others, it’s a tremendous issue, and it boils down to public safety.”
