In Orange County, proliferation of e-bikes brings 'mayhem' to the boardwalk
When Fred Levine steps off the patio of his beachfront home onto the crowded boardwalk, a roughly three-mile pathway that stretches parallel to the sand along the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach, he has to remember to look both ways.Three decades ago, Levine moved to what some refer to as the city’s “war zone,” a nickname given not because of crime but for the reputation of summertime rowdiness along the boardwalk, which now includes an abundance of electric bicycles.
Their popularity has created a conundrum for Orange County cities as they attempt to balance state climate goals that necessitate getting people out of gas-fueled cars withThe maximum speed most e-bikes can reach is 20 mph. However, some models can reach 28 mph or higher. Between January and October of last year, 78 of the 198 people who suffered an injury on an e-bike were not wearing helmets and 99 suffered some type of head injury, data show.
E-bikes fall into one of three categories under state law. Type 1 is a low-speed pedal-assisted bicycle. Type 2 has a pedal and a throttle. Type 3 bikes can go faster — up to 28 mph — with pedal assistance and riders have to be at least 16 years old and wear a helmet. At CHOC, a children’s hospital in Orange County, doctors treated 47 trauma patients who suffered e-bike-related injuries last year, with the most common ailments being concussions, bone fractures, skull fractures and facial fractures, said Makenzie Ferguson, an injury prevention coordinator at the hospital.
Signs posted along the unpaved path that runs alongside the coastal railroad tracks in the city warn of a $100 fine for using an electric or pedal-assisted bike on the beach or trail. “It’s convenient to hop on your bike and blaze down the trail,” Scott Farnsworth, 57, of San Clemente said as he unloaded his surfboard from his van in the parking lot above Trestles. “I’m really cognizant of the safety concerns people have, but I do wish there was a better solution than banning them.”
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