Spokane authorities are warning about the dangers of certain modes of personalized transportation. Captain Nate Spiering of the Spokane Police Department talks with SPR's Kyrsten Weber about an area of concern that grows with the warm weather.
This interview is lightly edited for length and clarity.
Kyrsten Weber: We are headed into the summer season, which means we're going to see a lot more people on e-bikes and e-scooters. There is a new law that holds parents accountable for their young people's behavior on certain forms of e-bikes. Tell us about that.
Nate Spiering: Yeah, it really differentiates the class of bike and what they're able to do. So it's broken down basically by the motor on the vehicle. It is a motor, electric or not.
So how much that motor actually helps the person pedal, or does the motor do all the work itself? Or does that combination allow the bike then to go over 20 miles an hour, up to 28 miles an hour? We're talking about stuff with pedals. Those are the bikes. The real concern jumps up when you talk about the vehicles that are electric, two wheels, you straddle them and you put your feet on foot pegs and it looks like a bike. It sounds like an electric bicycle, but it's actually a motorcycle. And that falls under regular motorcycle laws in the state of Washington. And sometimes that's overlooked a little bit.
KW: One requires a license, the other does not?
NS: Correct. Yeah. So a bicycle, something that is designed to be pedaled and has an electric assist motor that is 750 Watts or less, and only goes up to 28 miles an hour. And not more than that is an electric bicycle. Anything other than that that has no pedals or a higher wattage motor is a motorcycle. So you need a helmet, you need a license plate, you need a driver's license with a motorcycle endorsement, depending on the size and all the equipment that comes with that to include blinkers and lights and everything.
KW: In the city of Spokane, what's required when you ride an e-bike?
NS: The class one and two only goes up to 20 miles an hour. Those are treated just like bicycles. The 28 mile an hour class threes can't be ridden on mixed use trails, can't be ridden on soft surfaces and have some other requirements.
So folks really need to dive into it and pay attention if they're going to be the ones out there. Or my biggest concern is the young folks riding them. And if I'm allowing that to happen, they're out on the roadway getting from point A to point B and hopefully they're doing it safely.
KW: What are the consequences for parents who are allowing their kids to ride a bike that requires a license?
NS: There could be some civil penalties with it. I would caution parents mostly to consider - do the kids or the young adults riding these things, do they know the rules of the road? If I look left, look right, look left again. Why is that the standard? Well, because left is where the danger is going to come from as a driver. So I'm looking left first and then I do that a second time before deciding to cross an intersection. But that's assuming that that other vehicle is following the rules of the road as well. A cyclist does have to follow the rules of the road when operating in the roadway. And so these things can be avoided, but not having that discussion and not making sure that my child is getting to soccer practice and doing it in a safe manner, that's where the danger lies.
KW: What sorts of issues have we seen so far this spring with e-bikes and e-scooters that have involved law enforcement?
NS: We get complaints a lot about the riding behavior happening in places where they are not allowed. So even an e-bike can't be ridden inside a city park. You have that posted on most of the parks around here, but I get calls consistently about that. They're damaging the grass, they're damaging the area around them that they're riding on, they're interrupting games and other things going on in the park, and they're doing it again at a higher speed than just somebody enjoying riding through.
The other thing are collisions, and that again gets back to the rules of the road. And are they following the rules of the road or not?
What concerns me even more about collisions is what safety equipments are they wearing? So now if I'm operating something that goes 20 miles an hour, for example, it might only require a bicycle helmet. So there's a reason we have 20 mile an hour school zones, right? 20 mile an hour school zone is designed around the mortality rate of a vehicle crash with a pedestrian at 20 miles an hour being significantly less than that of a regular speed limit, which is 30 miles an hour. That mortality rate between 20 and 30 miles an hour jumps up about 90%. So if I have something that goes 28 miles an hour wearing just a bicycle helmet and I get into a wreck, even onto the ground or a stationary vehicle, my likelihood for severe injury increases dramatically.
What concerns me the most is that lack of understanding of where they can be ridden, how they should be ridden, when they are on the roadway legally doing so. I'm all in for kids being outside having a great time. It has to be safe. It has to be in the right area.
KW: Talk about some specific areas where the bikes are and aren't allowed. You said city parks. Does that include places like Palisades and Beacon and park properties like that?
NS: It depends on what bikes you're talking about. If you're talking about the motorcycles, no. Motorcycles are an off-road vehicle and they should be ridden off-road. If you're talking about the e-bikes, there might be some allowance in county parks. There's definitely not in the city parks. Part of that is just the park rules. The e-bikes themselves really should be ridden on the roadway like a bicycle following rules of the road.
Then you get into downtown and you have even more concerns where downtown has restricted bicycles and wheeled vehicles on sidewalks. We're seeing that as well. You add into that the amount of pedestrians in a downtown area, people leaving their car that's parked on the curb and accessing the sidewalk. You're inviting the risk of a pedestrian and bike collision.
KW: Talk a little bit about e-scooters because from what I understand, some of the same rules, especially in the downtown core, apply to e-scooters that do to the bikes.
NS: They do. It's essentially the same.
The Washington Traffic Safety Commission website has got a great e-bike guide on it. If parents are interested at all or any of the riders of these devices are interested at all in going to their website and you can follow along by inputting how many tires it has, is it designed to be stood on, sat on, does it have pedals or foot pegs, and it'll walk you through that process. Then you'll see the laws right in front of you as to what it's classed as, what requirements there are. Most of this all applies to the scooters as well and especially in the downtown core.
KW: Do you feel like the law is finally catching up with the technology?
NS: Catching up? It always seems like something like this cool comes out. Don't get me wrong, as a kid I would have loved to have a motorized BMX bike. That would have been so much fun. But then once it comes out, then we're seeing the dangers. Then you're seeing the law changes.
Washington State is encouraging a collaborative work group to look at the e-motorcycles. I think that's phenomenal. All of that stuff takes time.