FILE: A commuter on an e-bike in San Diego, Calif.
FILE: A commuter on an e-bike in San Diego, Calif.
California’s love-hate relationship with e-bikes and e-motorcycles is nothing new. Through one lens, the fossil fuel-free world of modern e-bike mania could be reason to rejoice, as the state continues to stretch toward giant climate goals like carbon neutrality by 2045. But there’s a darker vision of the e-bike world, where suburban idyll is shattered by hordes of law-breaking riders, often children, on souped-up electric weapons of discomfort, mayhem and, occasionally, death.
Nowhere is that stark contrast more acute than in Orange County. With its economic mix of everyday inland suburbia and unrivaled coastal wealth, accompanied by a tough-on-crime enforcement approach, it has become ground zero for the escalating war on these rechargeable two-wheeled vehicles.
From his Santa Ana office, Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer has led a sweeping effort to solve the region’s e-bike and e-motorcycle headaches, including increased threats of prison time for family members who have enabled misuse of these vehicles. In May, Spitzer debuted a new law enforcement unit called RIDE SAFELY (a muddy partial acronym meaning “Smart Accountability for E-Bikes and E-Motos and Law Enforcement for Youth”). The group’s stated focus is to review existing e-bike and e-moto cases with increased scrutiny for possible prosecution, and to “assist law enforcement agencies through the investigatory process” as needed, as noted in a news release.
FILE: Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer waits inside a Central Justice Center courtroom on Wednesday, July 3, 2024, in Santa Ana, Calif.
FILE: Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer waits inside a Central Justice Center courtroom on Wednesday, July 3, 2024, in Santa Ana, Calif.
“The death and devastation caused by e-Bikes and E-Motorcycles has reached epidemic levels,” Spitzer says in the release.
California vehicle code has three different classifications for electric bicycles, depending on motor size, speed and other factors like pedal assistance. There are also rules governing mopeds and electric motorcycles, including a minimum age to ride and requirements for registration and wearing helmets, among other things. The regulatory swirl can be overwhelming and confusing for families ready to throw down a few thousand on an e-bike to make it easier for a teen or child to get around.
Using data from the California Statewide Integrated Traffic Record System, Spitzer’s office has attributed more than 100 Southern California deaths to e-bikes and e-motos over the past four years, along with a 430% spike in injuries, noting that a majority of the region’s crashes involved riders age 11 to 14 — well below the state’s legal threshold age of 16 for e-motorcycle riders.
A separate study, conducted by the University of California, San Diego and using the same records system, found that annual e-bike crashes jumped from just two cases in 2018 to more than 1,500 by 2024 — an increase of more than 75,000% in just six years. UC San Diego School of Medicine professor Dr. Jay Doucet said that while e-bikes “provide substantial benefits to mobility and recreation,” the data showed “a dramatic increase in e-bike injuries across California” and “low rates of helmet use among injured riders.”
Communities from Marin to Danville to Los Angeles have begun their own legislative efforts to restrict e-bike and e-motorcycle use in recent years. But no other region is pursuing the same large-scale, heavily criminalized push as Orange County.
Richard Eyssallenne appears in court at the North Justice Center in Fullerton, Calif., on Monday, May 18, 2026. He pleaded not guilty to one count of felony child endangerment and abuse in March in the e-bike crash of his 12-year-old son.
Richard Eyssallenne appears in court at the North Justice Center in Fullerton, Calif., on Monday, May 18, 2026. He pleaded not guilty to one count of felony child endangerment and abuse in March in the e-bike crash of his 12-year-old son.
A large group of riders of mostly illegal dirt bikes and powerful e-bikes takes over the streets of Downtown Los Angeles as they ride in and out of traffic, often doing tricks, Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025.
A large group of riders of mostly illegal dirt bikes and powerful e-bikes takes over the streets of Downtown Los Angeles as they ride in and out of traffic, often doing tricks, Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025.
In March, a Yorba Linda father was hit with felony child endangerment and abuse charges after his 12-year-old son was seriously injured while riding an electric motorcycle that had been modified to go as fast as 60 mph. Officials said that the child ran a red light and collided with a vehicle, leaving the rider with serious injuries, including a fractured skull. Prosecutors allege that an 81-year-old Vietnam veteran was killed in a Lake Forest collision with a 14-year-old on an e-motorcycle in April, leading to involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment charges against the child’s mother. The arraignment in that case has been postponed until mid-September.
In an interview with KABC-TV, Spitzer said that the teen in the April case had been doing wheelies before the crash — and fled the scene afterward. “Like it or not, we’re responsible for the conduct of our children,” Spitzer told the station. (While SFGATE had an interview scheduled with Spitzer, it was canceled, and he ultimately did not comment to SFGATE for this story.)
Late last month, the Orange County Register reported that prosecutors currently have more than two dozen open e-bike and e-moto investigations into area parents, who could ultimately face criminal charges for the actions of their child riders.
Kendra Ramsey, executive director of the Sacramento-based advocacy group California Bicycle Coalition, commonly known as CalBike, agrees that a variety of stringent parameters are necessary to rein in issues within the fast-moving electric bicycle and motorcycle industry.
“We have obviously noticed the increasing concern coming from a lot of communities, coming from local elected officials all the way to state legislators,” Ramsey said in an interview with SFGATE. But the issue is not just one of punishment, she said, but of awareness and shared responsibility between families, government agencies — and even sellers.
FILE: Francesca Mathus drives as friends Imani Nelson and Zara Bian ride along at Mike Ward Community Park in Irvine, Calif., Sunday, July 11, 2021.
FILE: Francesca Mathus drives as friends Imani Nelson and Zara Bian ride along at Mike Ward Community Park in Irvine, Calif., Sunday, July 11, 2021.
“The average person going into a store may not understand, or even searching online, may not understand” the speeds and legal requirements of modern e-bicycle and e-motorcycle categories, she continued. The gap can have unintended — and potentially devastating — consequences. In most of the highest-profile crash cases, including those out of Orange County, the riders were not using e-bikes that adhered to state top speed restrictions, but rather various types of e-motorcycles with faster, more powerful engines that they weren’t legally allowed to ride at their age.
“What we really don’t want to see is legal e-bikes being lumped in with these other devices that are, really, what’s causing the problem in communities,” Ramsey said.
CalBike advocates for what it calls a “responsible middle” when it comes to overall cycling and road use, arguing that e-bikes are incredible mobility tools that should be used responsibly and in conjunction with increased street-level safety measures, like bikeways, that benefit all riders. CalBike also calls for the ongoing regulation of sellers, including Amazon, via legislative tools like California’s Senate Bill 1167, which would strengthen parameters around the labeling, advertisement and sale of electric bicycles, motor-driven cycles and other similar devices. Other bills being watched by CalBike include AB 1774, which would prohibit the sale of modification devices for electric bicycles.
It all takes time. “Technology often moves faster than the pace of regulation,” Ramsey said.
Meanwhile, Ramsey said changes can be made at the local level to increase cycling safety overall, despite the current tension around e-riding.
FILE: People ride their e-bikes on the Strand in Hermosa Beach, Calif., Nov. 10, 2023.
FILE: People ride their e-bikes on the Strand in Hermosa Beach, Calif., Nov. 10, 2023.
FILE: Children and adults alike can be seen zipping around on e-bikes near the Huntington Beach Pier on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023.
FILE: Children and adults alike can be seen zipping around on e-bikes near the Huntington Beach Pier on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023.
“I believe that our street infrastructure, generally speaking, is unsafe, and we need to do much better,” she said, adding that increased safe cycling in communities creates more thoughtful child riders overall. When kids see their parents or their neighbors using bicycles responsibly on well-maintained, bike-friendly roadways, they’re less likely to display unsafe rider behavior when out in the world themselves, Ramsey said.
Those long-lasting structural and behavioral changes are a different kind of safety measure than the growing post-crash prosecutions being sought by officials out of Santa Ana, the county seat for the OC. But with such a sharp spike in crash injuries and deaths in recent years, it appears officials there increasingly see criminalization as a necessary deterrent.
Ramsey of CalBike simply hopes that governments statewide can take a more holistic approach to stemming the surge, looping in legislative efforts, street-level changes and adjustments from vendors all at once.
“Right now, it’s like the Wild West,” she said.
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