Rising concerns about e-bike safety in Florida are prompting some municipal efforts to educate their community.
Boca Raton is offering an online e-bike safety course for teenagers as city officials and police respond to concerns about how young riders use electric bikes and understand the rules of the road.
“The department has used social media and officer’s contacts with riders to educate children and parents," said Dylan Huberman, the Boca Raton police department’s public information manager.
Boca Raton police officers encounter issues with e-bikes throughout the city, according to Huberman.
Because accidents involving e-bikes fall under the same category as “pedestrians and bicycles,” it’s difficult to determine whether e-bikes are fueling an increase in accidents and injuries. But anecdotal evidence suggests that e-bikes pose unique dangers that consumers should be aware of.
Medical professionals from the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami-Dade, including Dr Patricio Lau, the hospital's Medical Director, Trauma, have had many patients with complicated injuries from e-bike accidents.
“We have seen a trend in the increase of these injuries,” said Dr. Lau, who estimated that there has been a three-fold increase in e-bike related injuries in the past couple of years.
“Something that is common is long bone injuries, also fractures,” said Dr Lau, “In some cases, you can have brain injuries or head injuries” that end up altering a patient’s quality of life.
The jump in accidents and injuries comes from a double whammy of increased accessibility—driven, in part, by sales like Black Friday—and the fact that e-bikes are fast.
While there have been attempts to legislate some safeguards, Governor Ron Desantis vetoed Senate bill 382, a statewide safety bill for e-bikes, in June. The veto left communities in charge of regulating the use of e-bikes.
Boca Raton however hasn’t implemented a separate ordinance establishing its own age requirement, speed limit or licensing rules for e-bike riders. Instead, e-bikes generally fall under Florida's existing bicycle laws. Riders are allowed on roads, bike lanes, sidewalks and multiuse paths. On sidewalks, riders must yield to pedestrians and give an audible warning before passing them.
Dr. Lau also suggested that riders avoid going the maximum speeds on e-bikes and e-scooters, since the impact of a crash is different at 30mph than it is at a lower speed. Riders should also wear motorcycle helmets at speeds higher than 30 mph.
Riders also need to consider visibility—which can be a factor in accidents—and they should avoid the roads if they don’t have lights, according to Lau.
Boca Raton’s online course is meant for teenagers 12 to 19 years old; it is free for the first 150 people who enroll.
This story was produced by MediaLab@FAU, a project of Florida Atlantic University School of Communication and Multimedia Studies, as part of a content sharing partnership with the WLRN newsroom. The reporter can be reached here.
