“I don’t want to kill your kid!” Young Bike Users Increase in Bend and So Have the Calls to Police Them
Do the laws make sense and should police be enforcing them?
The City of Bend’s Police Department recently released a message to public school parents reminding them of the laws and regulations around electric-assisted bikes known as e-bikes. “We’re seeing a lot of kids zooming around on them, and it's important for parents to know this is illegal.”
Earlier in 2022, KTVZ reported about Bend Police reminding the community that it's actually illegal for anyone under the age of 16 to operate an electric-assisted bicycle in Oregon. No exceptions are made for riding in a park, biking with an adult, or on the way to school or school-sponsored events such as sports games. All are technically illegal and a law enforcement officer could issue a ticket.
Read the full message from the Bend PD here.
Popular local pages and groups on Facebook, Nextdoor, and Reddit have seen increased chatter about ramping up the use of law enforcement to patrol bike users, particularly kids. This demographic, which skews older, has been increasingly louder ever since the city rolled out the successful bike share program.
One citizen dove into a lengthy monologue on how he, while driving, almost killed a kid biking to the popular Riverbend Park. He ends the post, “Unfortunately, I don’t see that there’s anything that can be done about this except to have more policing of this kind of behavior.” To clarify, he wasn’t talking about his driving conduct but instead about the child biking to the park.
“…bikes in this town are out of control and breaking laws on a daily…”
“I have seen many scary situations with kids on these bikes!!! Parents please pay attention. I don’t want to kill your kid!!!
“bicycles should abide by vehicle laws. Stop at stop signs, yield when approaching, don’t speed. It's parents and law enforcement that are being lax on the law.”
Comments from a variety of posts on Redditt and Nextdoor
Bend, though liberal, is a law-and-order city. Police respond to calls in a timely fashion, quality-of-life crimes are enforced, and the City Council and its Mayor Elect generally support the department. Chief Mike Krantz has faced a lot of criticism during his tenure.
But the Bend Police Department doesn’t think that actively enforcing these rules is a good idea. Responding to questions about Bend PD’s standard operating procedure when encountering bike/e-bike infractions, their communications manager, Sheila Miller said,
“Bend PD uses discretion in how it chooses to enforce bike and e-bike laws and regulations, just as it does with many other laws and regulations. We are looking for compliance and for users to understand the rules surrounding riding bikes and e-bikes in our community. Our officers respond to tens of thousands of calls a year, and we must prioritize the most pressing emergencies in our community. We address bike/e-bike behaviors on a case-by-case basis and generally urge compliance and education.”
Data records seem to support Bend PD’s approach to educating the youth community, rather than enforcing. Responding to a public records request for all the records relating to juveniles (someone under the age of 16) breaking bike or e-bike laws and regulations, the Bend Police Department, “ …found two juveniles who received warnings for bike violations in 2022. One was for ORS 814.410 (A221-00065) and the other was for ORS 815.280 (A243-00262)”
Though written warnings aren’t reported to the DMV and typically won’t show up on a background check, the records are still kept internally by police departments. The written warnings for these two situations don’t make it clear whether bikes or e-bikes were used.
As Bend’s family population continues to grow and City Hall is filled with even more advocates for secure modes of transportation for pedestrians and bicyclists, it's safe to say that bike users, particularly kid bike users, will only increase.
For now, Bend’s children are free to bike our streets without fear of being cited by police.
Good article describing what is bound to become more and more of an issue in Bend and other cities, as e-bikes take off in popularity. As always there seems to be an uneasy truce between bicyclists and drivers of cars...
I did not know that kids under 16 could not legally ride e-bikes! This is really well-written, easily digested and thorough explanation of a very tough subject. I like how it gives the view point of the police and the drivers and social media groups. I like how this is a hyper-local focused newsletter but is relevant to everyone inside and outside of Bend! Can't wait to read about the next issue...