Riverside city leaders pumped the brakes on a proposed crackdown on electric bikes this week, sending the measure back to committee for changes rather than voting it into law. The move comes as the city grapples with a surge of complaints, dozens of crashes, and the deaths of two 14-year-old riders struck by a vehicle last month.
The Riverside City Council had been weighing new rules regulating e-bikes and similar electric conveyances before deciding to route the proposal back to the Public Safety Committee for revisions, according to the Press-Enterprise. The rules are expected to return to the full council at a future meeting, and if ultimately approved, would take effect one month later. As drafted, the measure would prohibit unsafe riding in public spaces, ban e-bike use in parks, on sidewalks and in city-owned parking lots, and outlaw off-highway e-motorcycles in public areas. It would also bar riders from using handheld phones, require helmets for minors, and impose penalties for traffic violations.
The stakes behind the debate are grim. On Aug. 25, two 14-year-old victims were fatally struck by a vehicle in Riverside while riding an e-scooter and an e-moto, the outlet reported. Since Jan. 1, the Riverside Police Department has fielded more than 200 complaints about e-bikes and logged more than 22 related crashes, per the same report.
A County-Wide Spike in Crashes
The numbers behind the push extend well beyond city limits. Riverside County reported 224 e-bike accidents in 2023, a figure that climbed to 494 in 2024 and then jumped to 958 in 2025, according to a county news release cited in the article. County officials also attributed at least one fatality to e-bikes in 2024 and two more in 2025…