If you ask police officers, school administrators or residents in Morgan Hill about e-bikes, you’ll likely hear the same response: They’re becoming one of the biggest public safety challenges facing our community.
Not because e-bikes are inherently dangerous. It’s because too many riders are treating them like toys instead of vehicles.
Anyone who spends time near our schools, through downtown or around Morgan Hill’s parks has probably witnessed it—young riders blowing through stop signs, racing across intersections, riding against traffic, carrying passengers on bikes designed for one person or performing wheelies in traffic.
Fortunately, most trips end without incident. But that’s a dangerous way to measure success.
One mistake by a rider—or one split-second decision by a driver who doesn’t anticipate an e-bike traveling 25 or 30 mph—can change lives forever.
According to Morgan Hill Police Chief Shane Palsgrove, it’s not just the youth. Adults have been involved in three major-injury collisions, one resulting in a death in the past 12 months. The collisions were a result of an electric bicycle rider operating the vehicle impaired, or being in violation of traffic laws.
With calls for service involving electric bicycles on the rise in Morgan Hill, the city has adopted a balanced approach that emphasizes both education and enforcement in order to improve public safety.
“On the education side, the Morgan Hill Police Department regularly uses its social media platforms to promote bicycle safety and educate the community about applicable laws,” Palsgrove said. “Bicycle and traffic safety are also discussed at neighborhood meetings, and our School Resource Officer works closely with the Morgan Hill Unified School District to educate students about safe and lawful riding practices.”
The goal isn’t to hand out tickets. It’s to prevent a crash that never should have happened.
From an enforcement perspective, officers conduct targeted patrols in areas and during times when reckless riding is most frequently reported, Palsgrove added.
In addition to these operational efforts, the Morgan Hill City Council has directed staff to evaluate whether additional local policies or ordinances could further address reckless riding behaviors while remaining consistent with California law.
But it’s the parents who have to be the first teachers. Before buying an e-bike, they should understand exactly what they’re purchasing. Some models sold online can travel far faster than California allows for legal e-bikes.
Parents should insist on helmets, prohibit passengers, discourage phone use while riding and make it clear that stop signs and red lights aren’t optional.
Finally, riders themselves need to recognize a simple fact: An e-bike isn’t just a bicycle with a battery. At 20 or 28 mph—and sometimes much faster if illegally modified—it carries enough speed and weight to cause serious injury.
Bicyclists and e-bikers are required to follow the same traffic laws as vehicles. Riders younger than 18 must wear helmets, all Class 3 riders must wear helmets, and Class 3 riders must be at least 16 years old.
High-powered electric motorcycles marketed as “e-bikes” often don’t qualify as bicycles at all and may require registration and licensing.
And police emphasized the following safety rules and precautions:
• Always wear a properly fitted helmet
• Ride only e-bikes that are legal to operate on public roadways
• Obey traffic laws, traffic signals and stop signs
• Stay alert and avoid distractions while riding.
The real challenge isn’t writing another ordinance. It’s building a culture of responsibility.
Morgan Hill has always found success when schools, parents, law enforcement, local government and residents work together to solve problems. E-bike safety should be no different.
We don’t need to become known as the community that wrote the toughest ordinances. We should become known as the community that created the safest riders.
That would be a legacy worth passing on to the next generation.
