By Mark R. Wood
In 2021, 1.1 million e-bikes were sold in the U.S. — almost four times the number sold in 2019. This increase in new e-bike riders will add additional traffic to trails that are already overcrowded with pedestrians and cyclists.
Most bike and multi-use paths in Colorado are eight feet wide and were not designed for motorized traffic that goes 20-plus miles per hour. The injury tsunami is coming.
E-bike related head injuries have increased 49x in five years, the American College of Surgeons reported. There’s been a significant increase in traumatic brain injuries, especially for kids who are not wearing helmets.
A cargo e-bike — loaded with a parent, kids and gear — weighs around 200-275 lbs. Traveling at 28 mph, this vehicle can create significant injuries when they collide with unsuspecting pedestrians or cyclists. I was almost a victim of one of those crashes.
There is an urgent need to improve the safety signage and education to help prevent this trend from growing rapidly. We need to add better signage with speed limits and safety reminders to guide safe use of the multi-use paths we all share together.
It has become an annoying trend to see youngsters riding three to a bike on the path with no helmets, going 20 mph without pedaling. Helmet use is infrequent with youngsters and needs to be consistently reinforced by parents and signage.
Safety etiquette common to most cyclists — like announcing “on your left” or ringing a bell when approaching others from behind — are good examples of ways to communicate your intentions to others to help prevent near misses.
Industry experts suggest the need for a required class for young and new riders before granting permission to use their e-bikes on roads and paths. The safety classes could be taught in person at schools on weekends to engage the students (and seniors) by physically showing them what safe riding looks like.
Asking kids to watch a video to learn e-bike safety has not been effective. This class would certify that young riders — who don’t have a driver’s ed course to teach things like awareness and rules of the road/path — have been provided with the basics of safety and rules pertaining to e-biking in our communities. Parents would be thrilled, and kids would receive clear guidance for what are acceptable and unacceptable behaviors.
Adults can model these safe behaviors to help kids, who learn by seeing and doing, by using hand signals and bells regularly. Experience dictates that we need to communicate safety messages in a way that the users want to consume that information; and then ask them to share that message with their friends and others.
Crashes and near misses between e-bikes, bicycles, scooters, unicycles and pedestrians are increasing daily, according to the American College of Surgeons’ report — and those are only the reported cases. It is possible that the reported number of incidents and crashes are a fraction of the total amount that actually occur.
We all share the same multi-use paths. All communities in the Front Range have a responsibility to act now to prevent more e-bike related crashes, especially for our future generations.
Mark Wood is an avid cyclist and e-biker, volunteer and marketing contractor for Community Cycles, and member of Commuting Solutions and Boulder Chamber Transportation Connection. Wood started an e-bike safety awareness program, ebikesafetyadvocates.com, after three near misses with cargo e-bikes on Boulder trails in 2023.