Up until recently, complaints about kids riding electric-powered bikes largely lived where so many neighborhood disputes do: on Facebook, Nextdoor and HOA message boards.<\/p>\n
Read more Carolyn Hax | Marriage breaking over addicted stepson<\/a><\/p>\n Residents complained about teenagers popping wheelies through shopping centers, blowing stop signs, weaving around pedestrians and treating greenways like race courses. Parents, meanwhile, defended the bikes as a way to get children outside and less dependent on rides from Mom and Dad.<\/p>\n But the problem has nothing to do with most e-bikes. Officials say the real challenge is increasingly powerful electric vehicles operating in spaces designed for pedestrians \u2014 and widespread confusion about what many parents think they\u2019re buying.<\/p>\n That confusion has prompted a wave of ordinance changes across the region, and in Charlotte, a City Council member is leading an effort to take a new look at e-bike rules.<\/p>\n Much of that confusion stems from the fact that people use the term \u201ce-bike\u201d to describe a wide range of very different vehicles.<\/p>\n Many products marketed online as \u201ce-bikes\u201d do not meet North Carolina\u2019s legal definition of an electric-assisted bicycle. State law defines an electric-assisted bicycle as a bicycle with two or three wheels, fully operable pedals, a seat or saddle, an electric motor of no more than 750 watts and a top speed of no more than 20 mph on motor power alone.<\/p>\n Vehicles that exceed those limits may fall into other categories, including mopeds, motorcycles or motor-driven bicycles, depending on their specifications.<\/p>\n \u201cResidents who call in generally refer to everything as e-bikes,\u201d said David Baucom, police chief in the Town of Cornelius, the first Charlotte-area town to overhaul its ordinance<\/a> in response to the rise of e-bikes and other electric-powered vehicles. \u201cBecause many people still do not know there is a difference between them.\u201d<\/p>\n Driving much of the surge in revised local ordinances like Cornelius\u2019s is how quickly the technology has changed.<\/p>\n Pedal-assist bicycles have been around for years, but officials say a wave of heavier, faster electric-powered vehicles \u2014 some capable of highway speeds while still resembling bicycles to many consumers \u2014 has blurred the line between bicycles and motorcycles, forcing local governments to revisit rules that no longer fit the marketplace.<\/p>\n Nationally, these debates aren\u2019t new.<\/p>\n Local governments in places like New York City, San Diego, Santa Monica and others have been wrestling with e-bike and e-mobility regulations for years. Likewise, states such as California and Colorado have developed more mature legal frameworks.<\/p>\n But efforts in the greater Charlotte area have been snowballing since last fall, with Cornelius overhauling its ordinance in November and Waxhaw and Davidson following suit in February.<\/p>\n The new rules vary somewhat by municipality, but they share the same basic goal: separating traditional electric-assist bicycles from faster, more powerful electric motorcycles while giving pedestrians priority on sidewalks and greenways.<\/p>\n All three towns require riders to yield to pedestrians, restrict where higher-powered electric vehicles may operate, and authorize officers to issue citations.<\/p>\n The differences are in the finer details.<\/p>\n Cornelius focused most heavily on distinguishing legal pedal-assist e-bikes from the increasingly popular e-motos that can weigh nearly 100 pounds, reach 40 mph or more and are often marketed online as \u201ce-bikes.\u201d Police there also can cite parents or legal guardians when juvenile riders repeatedly violate the ordinance. E-motos are not allowed on greenways, and there\u2019s a 20 mph speed limit on greenways for e-bikes.<\/p>\n Waxhaw\u2019s new ordinance<\/a> also drew distinctions between vehicle types, but its public messaging has been less focused on reclassification and more on where various devices may legally operate; the rules it adopted bar e-bikes, e-scooters and other motorized recreational devices from sidewalks (while continuing to allow traditional bicycles in many cases). The town capped speeds on greenways and multi-use paths at 15 mph.<\/p>\n Davidson, meanwhile, has banned e-motos from sidewalks but allows true e-bikes on them. The same rules apply for greenways, although it did not explicitly set a speed limit for them. It\u2019s instead distinguished their ordinance<\/a> by placing an emphasis on an aggressive public education campaign aimed at helping families understand what their children are actually riding.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve said to parents a couple times (at informational meetings), \u2018There\u2019s no one in this room that would buy their child a motorcycle,\u2019 and they\u2019re like, \u2018Of course not, that would be dangerous,\u2019\u201d said Davidson Police Chief Philip Geiger. \u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018Well, that\u2019s what a lot of us have done, is you\u2019ve unknowingly<\/i> bought your child a motorcycle \u2014 and now we\u2019re hopeful that nothing bad is going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n Read more New poll shows how NC voters\u2019 affordability concerns could influence midterms | Opinion<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cSo … we want people to just understand the public safety risk and comply,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe don\u2019t really want to do the enforcement. But if we need to, we will.\u201d<\/p>\n Yet there\u2019s a challenge for everyone involved: Parents often unknowingly buy vehicles marketed as e-bikes that are legally e-motorcycles, leaving officers to determine exactly what a child is riding before they can decide which laws apply.<\/p>\n Even in Cornelius, police say they\u2019ve issued fewer than 10 citations under the ordinance.<\/p>\n That same challenge has now reached Charlotte City Hall.<\/p>\n Charlotte City Council member Kimberly Owens said complaints about high-speed electric vehicles were among the issues she heard repeatedly while campaigning for office last year: \u201cWhen I started to run for office and people talked to me about the things that really gave them anxiety, it continued to come up.\u201d<\/p>\n And since taking office in December, Owens has emerged as the first Charlotte elected official to publicly champion the issue, pushing it onto the agenda of the council\u2019s Safety Committee<\/a> as the city considers whether its ordinances have kept pace with technology.<\/p>\n Like officials in Cornelius, Waxhaw and Davidson, Owens said one of the biggest challenges isn\u2019t writing new rules \u2014 it\u2019s helping residents understand the differences between the increasingly diverse electric-powered vehicles now on the market.<\/p>\n \u201cI do think it\u2019s important to draw the distinctions, because I think it all gets lumped in together and sort of demonized together,\u201d she said. At the same time, she added, \u201cI want to be very clear that we are not talking about banning anything. We\u2019re talking about really understanding, as a city, and then communicating to the folks out in our community what the distinctions are.\u201d<\/p>\n Owens hopes the Safety Committee will begin discussing the issue later this summer, with proposed ordinance changes potentially reaching the full council before the end of the year.<\/p>\n The conversation isn\u2019t stopping at the local level, either.<\/p>\n Rep. Beth Helfrich, a Davidson Democrat whose district includes much of northern Mecklenburg County, is working with police chiefs, cycling advocates and other stakeholders on legislation she hopes will bring greater clarity to North Carolina law.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s tricky, because so many young people are on electric bicycles, or on vehicles that even can go faster than what we would consider legally defined electric bicycle,\u201d Helfrich said. But she said better laws alone won\u2019t solve the problem. \u201cIt is really an educational campaign that needs to happen in terms of trying to create policy that clarifies … what it actually is that you\u2019re purchasing.\u201d<\/p>\n