Tam Union school district proposes e-bike registration program

Tamalpais Union High School District students who ride e-bikes to school will need to register their bikes if they want to park on campuses, according to a proposed program set to launch in the fall.

The effort, which is being coordinated with the Central Marin Police Authority and the Mill Valley Police Department, also will prohibit teens’ use of e-bikes that can travel more than 20 miles per hour. That includes bikes that use apps to push the e-bike throttles over 20 miles per hour, or that have engines of more than 750 watts.

“There are certain bikes out there being sold to customers and marketed as e-bikes, when in fact they are motorized bicycles or mopeds,” Central Marin police Chief Michael Norton told Tam Union trustees at a meeting on April 16.

E-motorcycles or mopeds are illegal on Marin streets or sidewalks unless the rider has registered the motorcycle with the state Department of Motor Vehicles, has license plates and is wearing a helmet, Norton said. Licensing is not required for the standard e-bikes that do not exceed 20 mph.

Norton, Mill Valley police Lt. Shaun McCracken and Tara Taupier, superintendent of the Tamalpais Union High School District, said the rise in use of e-bikes has led to increased injuries of pedestrians on sidewalks, confusion about which bikes are safe and other issues.

“A majority of injury-level accidents on e-bikes in the county occur for those in the 10 to 16 age range,” Taupier said. “Students are not aware of traffic laws, and they don’t wear helmets.”

The e-bike issue is “an area where we’re just at the start of the conversation” countywide, Taupier said.

“There’s a lot of interest in, how do we ensure that our students are safe when riding e-bikes?” she said. “And, how do we share the information with families so that families know the realities around this and the safety issues that come up?”

According to the district’s proposal, in order to register a child’s e-bike, parents will have to sign a letter certifying that their child or children will not have access to the speed-enhancing app or otherwise be allowed to modify their e-bikes to exceed 20 mph.

The district will work with law enforcement to enforce registration and impound e-bikes and e-motorcycles that are not registered, Taupier said.

The allowable e-bikes are within class 1 or class 2, both of which are not made to travel more than 20 mph. Class 3, which includes e-motorcycles or e-dirt bikes, can go up to 28 miles per hour.

The main problem is that some e-bikes are being sold to families as class 2 — and thus legal — but their throttles can be altered to travel faster than 20 mph with an app or other devices, law enforcement officials and education officials said.

Bob Mittelstaedt of E-bike Access, a Marin nonprofit, agreed that families can be misled by retailers or manufacturers and end up purchasing bikes that are not class 2 and not legal e-bikes.

“The key to any registration process is to clarify which devices are legal and which aren’t,” Mittelstaedt said in an email. “The problem stems from all the throttle devices that are deceptively sold as Class 2 e-bikes when they are actually motorcycles.”

“This has to stop — and a registration process can be an effective first step, if done properly,” he said.

Mittelstaedt doubted, however, that simply asking parents to certify that their child’s e-bike will not go faster than 20 miles per hour would be enough.

“They need a serious registration program in which the registrant proves that his or her transport device is legal,” he said. “For throttle devices, that means proving that its motor is less than 750 watts and cannot work — regardless of the mode or the setting on the app or display — when the device reaches 20 mph.”

Marin and state laws about e-bikes are conflicting and undergoing revisions. For example, it is illegal to ride e-bikes on the sidewalks in Mill Valley, but sidewalks are OK in the Central Marin police jurisdiction of San Anselmo, Corte Madera and Larkspur, except for the downtown area.

E-bikes, however, are illegal on some multiuse paths in those central and southern Marin communities. Class 1 and 2 e-bikes, or those allowed under the proposed new rules, are legal on Marin County parks multiuse paths.

Taupier said the district will send out an email to parents about the current and proposed rules on e-bikes, and the proposed registration program, later this month.