Trending
Few things are scarier than driving your car and then suddenly realizing there is an e-bike coming at you heading the wrong way on a one-way street.
In eight years as a City Court Judge (2014-2021) handling Vehicle and Traffic tickets, among many other duties, there were no obvious issues with e-bikes and e-scooters. I do not recall a single traffic ticket related to the operation of an e-bike or e-scooter.
Now everyday exposes area drivers to encountering e-bikes going against traffic, blowing past red lights and stop signs, randomly alternating between traveling on sidewalks and streets. (Obviously there are many responsible adults using e-bikes recreationally who follow New York's rules for the operation of e-bikes).
Apparently, one of the many changes in our lives coming out of the 2020-21 pandemic has been the sudden presence of e-bikes and e-scooters on our streets.
2022, the year after I left the City Court bench, saw an explosion of e-bike sales in our country to 1,100,000 from just 270,000 in 2019, the year before the pandemic.
E-bikes first became popular in crowded Chinese cities, followed in the 2010s in some European countries, such as Germany and the Netherlands. Those European governments saw e-bikes as a way to reduce traffic congestion in major cities.
It does not appear that places like Jamestown, Falconer, Lakewood, Dunkirk, Fredonia and Silver Creek need e-bikes to combat traffic congestion, unlike in Berlin or Beijing.
A technological innovation, the lithium-ion battery, made e-bikes more practical and more popular for daily use. The new lithium-ion battery provided faster charging times, lighter weight and longer range.
Often the e-bike or e-scooter operators are young people.
There are moments when we suddenly need to know the rules and regulations of something new in our lives. We need education.
For senior citizens, for example, as we approach 65, we are likely to attend a seminar where we are told all about the myriad of choices we have for our Medicare coverage. Medicare options are complicated. We realize we need to be educated on how to navigate those Medicare choices.
For teenagers in New York, when they reach age 16, they may begin the legal process of earning the privilege to drive. This process requires a great deal of driver education.
The 16-year-old can get a Learners Permit, for example, only if they pass a written test on traffic laws.
What then do we do in Chautauqua County to deal with this new "Wild West" of e-bikes and e-scooters?
It appears likely that most teenagers (as well as adults) have little idea what New York law and rules are for the operation of e-bikes and e-scooters on public streets and roadways.
Our Chautauqua County Sheriff could coordinate the resources of local law enforcement, including our State Police and our City, Village and Town Police, together with School Resource Officers, to go into all 17 high schools this Spring to educate our high school students about the operation of e-bikes.
If each of the 17 high schools had even a one-hour assembly, the law enforcement representatives could educate our students about New York Vehicle and Traffic Law as it pertains to e-bikes and e-scooters. The law enforcement representatives could send the students home with a pamphlet that simply highlights the most important rules for legally operating an e-bike or e-scooter.
This Essay is not attempting to cover all of New York law on the use of e-bikes. Suffice it to say the high school students will probably be greatly surprised to learn that one must be at least 16 to operate an e-bike or e-scooter on our streets and that virtually all the laws on operating a motorcycle also apply to the operation of e-bikes and e-scooters.
Once high school students are educated, one can hope that they will educate their families and friends about what they learned in high school from a law enforcement professional about operating e-bikes and e-scooters.
Once law enforcement has had this opportunity to teach our entire high school population about the law of operating e-bikes and e-scooters, law enforcement may be more likely to issue Vehicle and Traffic Law tickets to young people, and older people as well, who now knowingly break the law.
Clearly e-bikes and e-scooters are not going away.
We can all hope that by turning to education, next Summer Chautauqua County motorists will encounter fewer e-bikes and e-scooters heading the wrong way on one-way streets or blowing through red lights or stop signs.
If our area law enforcement resources are given an opportunity this Spring to educate the entire student populations of our 17 high schools in Chautauqua County about New York's law and rules for the operation of e-bikes and e-scooters, we can hope that we will move beyond the current "Wild West" on our streets.
Fred Larson is a retired Jamestown City Court Judge, serving from 2014-2021, and a Chautauqua County Legislator who is assigned to the Public Safety Committee.