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Sam Dingman: This is WAMC's Northeast Notebook. I'm Sam Dingman.
Electric bikes and scooters are seemingly everywhere. On streets, on sidewalks, in traffic and off road. And while they're seen as affordable, environmentally-friendly travel options, others are concerned they're becoming too dangerous.
Allen West Jr: I'm in the third speed, it gets up to 32 miles an hour and I feel like that's too fast.
Sam Dingman: In New York and Massachusetts, regulations are being drafted at the state and city level in response to serious crashes.
Carl Williams: I've been saying often in my tenure on city council an unenforceable law is a suggestion and I think that we're at a point right now where safety is at an all-time concern for residents.
Sam Dingman: So how are local and state safety laws going to keep pace with these bikes?
Sam Dingman: North Adams, also known as the Steeple City, is folded into the northern Berkshires. Once home to a robust manufacturing economy, the small city is now an arts tourism destination.
There's a public liberal arts college, small businesses, and views of the mountains and valleys on Western Massachusetts, southern Vermont, and eastern New York.
But there's also something officials on the city council are considering a nuisance on city streets.
Izzy Bryars: It's like a, it's a, it's a buzzing. It's kind of like when you see one of those really small cars that kinda tries to rev. Like if a smart car was trying to rev is what I would liken it to.
Sam Dingman: Okay. Can you imitate that sound?
Izzy Bryars: Brrrr
Izzy Bryars: Can I do, I don't know if I can...
Sam Dingman: Izzy Bryars is a reporter for the Berkshire Eagle. She's been covering efforts by the North Adams City Council to tamp down on ebikes as its police department gets more complaints about dangerous riding.
Sam Dingman: And there's different classes of them. What's the difference between the classes?
Izzy Bryars: Okay so, class one is, um, it is anything it has to go up to 20 miles an hour, um, but there is no throttle assistance.
Sam Dingman: Okay.
Izzy Bryars: And then class two, there will be throttle assistance, but you're still gonna see that max out at 20 miles an hour. Whereas class three, um, can go up to 28 miles an hour with that throttle assistance again.
Sam Dingman: But some e-bikes are moving a lot faster than 28 miles an hour.
Jonathan Ehsani: The other thing that we see happening anecdotally is people deliberately modifying their bikes so that they can go higher than the cap.
Sam Dingman: Jonathan Ehsani, is a road safety researcher at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University.
Jonathan Ehsani: And that's a problem. That's a manufacturing and kind of a, consumer product issue.
Allen West Jr.: My um, coworker said to me one day, he said, you know, I can change your bike into electric. I can make that an electric bike. I said, get out of here. How you gonna do all that?
Sam Dingman: This is Allen West Jr. He spoke with producer Molly Anderson on the street, right outside WAMC studios here in Albany. Allen told us he’s been riding his modified bike in Albany for a few years now, and says he strictly uses the ‘third’ speed setting which is capped at 32 miles an hour.
Allen West Jr.: If I go to four or five, I'm sure it goes 10 more miles an hour.
Molly Anderson: Really?
Allen West Jr.: That's in the forty miles an hour range. Which is extremely fast for me.
Molly Anderson: Yeah, yeah.
Sam Dingman: For reference, the speed limit in front of our station here on Central Ave is 25 miles an hour. And with e-bikes that can easily top city speed limits, municipalities are trying to find a solution.
Sam Dingman: Okay, so let's come to the North Adams component of this. Um, there was a draft ordinance in June related to e-bikes. What did it say?
Izzy Bryars: Bicycles have been banned in North Adams for---on, on sidewalks---for a very long time, for decades.
Sam Dingman: All kinds of bicycles.
Izzy Bryars: All bicycles, except, with, you know, with the proliferation of e-bikes within the last few years, they've ramped up a lot.
Sam Dingman: The ordinance North Adams is looking to update…is pretty outdated.
Izzy Bryars: It still was banning wheelbarrows on the sidewal- sidewalk.
Sam Dingman: Okay.
Izzy Bryars: Um, so yes, there is this attempt to catch up with modern technology. And, basically, what they're trying to do is include e-bikes in the ordinance because they're not there. It just says bicycles. Um, and so this would, you know, uh-
Izzy Bryars: ban them from the sidewalk, um, make you dismount at crosswalks.
Sam Dingman: You've been out in the streets in North Adams observing people on e-bikes. What are the types of incidents and interactions that are happening with e-bikes that are, are prompting these concerns?
Izzy Bryars: The biggest thing is, um, them being too close to the road, going too quick, and then also, uh, veering on and around pedestrians in pedestrian areas like crosswalks, like sidewalks.
Allen West Jr: I see a lot of people shooting through it and trying to beat the light. I don't do that.
Molly Anderson: Yeah.
Allen West Jr: Cause all it takes is one, the next person not seeing you come through there, especially on a bike, boom, and you know.
Molly Anderson: Yeah.
Allen West Jr: On a bike you can really get hurt.
Molly Anderson: Yeah.
Sam Dingman: Jonathan Ehsani has been tracking the injuries involving e-bikes.
Jonathan Ehsani: ...So compared to standard bicycles. E-bike riders were far more likely like, 62 percent more likely to be admitted to the hospital, and twice as likely to need intensive care.
Jonathan Ehsani: You know, crashing with these bikes is a real thing. Around 45 percent occurred with, with motor vehicles, with cars.
Carl Williams: I've been saying often in my tenure on city council an unenforceable law is a suggestion and I think that we're at a point right now where safety is at an all-time concern for residents.
Sam Dingman: Carl Williams is President of the Schenectady City Council. The Electric City is also considering restrictions on electric bikes.
Carl Williams: Whether you're a pedestrian or a vehicle on the road, it's important to ensure that we are taking the steps necessary to ensure that we're promoting kind of these essential barriers or guidelines.
Sam Dingman: Compared to the standardized licensing and traffic laws for motor vehicles, not all classes of e-bikes require a license or even a helmet. And according to WAMC's Grant Ashley, who has reported on e-bike regulations in the Capital Region, this has led to confusion.
Grant Ashley: You have people who are like, wait you have to be 16 to use this vehicle, but, you know, I didn't realize I had to, you know, abide by this rule when I was on this type of vehicle. It gets really murky.
Sam Dingman: He says e-bikes' popularity and injuries go hand in hand...
Grant Ashley: And that's not that these bikes are getting more dangerous, right, like I imagine the reason is that more people are using them. Right, for all the reasons we talked about, they're efficient and affordable.
Sam Dingman: Yeah.
Sam Dingman: And while e-bikes are becoming increasingly popular, there’s a trend in ridership data that Jonathan Ehsani finds interesting.
Jonathan Ehsani: E-bike users tend to be, actually, adults. And, um, particularly older adults. You know, about a quarter of e-bike users are over the age of 60.
Sam Dingman: They're so popular that even North Adams City Councilor Lillian Zavatsky commutes on an e-bike, as Izzy found out.
Sam Dingman: Do you get the sense from your reporting on this that there's sort of like a race for states to figure out how to regulate e-bikes?
Izzy Bryars: Um yeah, no, I think there definitely is, especially as we see them get faster and faster and we see more and more the of these quote class threes that go above 28 miles an hour.
Jonathan Ehsani: And so you've got this situation where you've got this new introduction to the transportation system without the corresponding infrastructure to accommodate them. And that's where we see the problems with e-bikes.
Sam Dingman: To address those problems, North Adams City Council is brainstorming some ideas.
Izzy Bryars: They have worked with North Adams Police Department to, uh, get some recommendations for ideas for how this could work. They've come up with the again, uh, TBD, uh, idea of a tiered penalty system. Maybe the first time-
Sam Dingman: Now we're in real nerd territory.
Izzy Bryars: Yes.
Sam Dingman: Tiered penalty system.
Izzy Bryars: So, you know, the first, maybe the first offense, a small fine, second offense maybe another small fine or, or a ticket or something like that. And then the third, a very, a temporary confiscation of the e-bike for a day or so and then you gotta go pick it back up at the police department.
Sam Dingman: In terms of the current safety laws on the books, the boundaries for e-bikes aren't clearly defined. In Massachusetts, many e-bikes fall under the 'motorized bicycle' category instead of the Class 1, 2, or 3 system. In New York, sidewalk usage for e-bikes is left up to local law.
And, as e-bikes exist in this gray area of regulation, Izzy Bryars says that many riders are confused.
Izzy Bryars: The biggest concerns that people have had are, you know, where is the safe place that I'm supposed to go? If- there are, a lot of times there isn't any and that is, you know, that, that begs the question of how do we make that safer for these people who it's- inevitably are going to be riding e-bikes?
Sam Dingman: Northeast Notebook is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. It was produced by Molly Anderson. Our Executive Producer is Lucas Willard. Our editor is Diane DeVore. Music by Eduardo Rivera.
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I’m Sam Dingman, thanks for listening.
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