E-bike working group to update Honolulu City Council

Honolulu officials say the number of accidents involving electric bicycles has proliferated on Oahu. Since January, the city Emergency Services Department has reported 180 incidents involving the powered machines—ones often operated by underage riders.

Those include a 12-year-old boy who was not wearing a helmet when he crashed his e-bike into a moving car in Ewa in April ; a helmeted 15-year-old boy who collided with a car in Kalihi in June ; and a 9-year-old boy who was struck by a car while riding an e-bike without a helmet in Wahiawa in July.

All three were transported to area hospitals after suffering critical injuries, city officials said.

Currently, Hawaii law states all kids under age 16 must wear a helmet while riding a bicycle. A person must be at least 15 years old to ride a “low-speed electric bicycle ” registered to an adult household member.

Following public concerns over the dangerous and unlawful operation of fast-moving e-bikes on Oahu, the city formed a working group to study how best to regulate the controversial machines.

So far, the group—comprising city Department of Transportation Services and other city-and state-level agencies as well as the advocacy group Hawaii Bicycling League—has begun its review of helmet rules, age restrictions and other legal issues pertaining to e-bikes, city officials say.

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Convening in nonpublic, “internal ” meetings that began earlier this month, the panel is scheduled to present its initial findings Tuesday to the Honolulu City Council’s Transportation Committee.

That update comes as Council members Augie Tulba and Tyler Dos Santos-Tam introduced Bill 52, which seeks to revise existing city laws with regard to the use and possession of e-bikes. The measure, drafted in collaboration with Hawaii Bicycling League, also seeks to include a three-class system based on the top speed and components of e-bikes, which other jurisdictions have adopted around the country.

Bill 52 passed the second of three readings at the Council’s Oct. 9 meeting. Now, the measure awaits the working group’s final recommendations before further legislative action will occur, according to Tulba.

“The city’s electric bicycle working group is an all-hands-on-deck approach to developing thoughtful regulations to ensure the safety of all road users, ” he said in a statement. “There’s so much confusion in our communities about what’s allowed on our roads and current e-bike regulations are critically outdated. It’s time to act.”

Tulba added that he’s “optimistic that we’re on a path to set the rules through Bill 52, that will keep everyone safe while still recognizing the benefits of e-bikes and allowing age-appropriate, responsible riders to enjoy them.”

Dos Santos-Tam said “e-bikes put kids in danger.”

“And enough is enough. How many more kids need to go to the hospital before we take action ? Change starts with this bill, ” he said in a statement. “It sets restrictions where there are none and makes enforcement easier. We need to get it done—and we need it done now.”

To that end, Dos Santos-Tam stated at the Council’s Oct. 9 meeting that he hopes to have Bill 52 adopted by year’s end.

“I bet a lot of kids are going to be getting e-bikes for Christmas, ” he said, “so we want to make sure that we have some rules in place, sooner rather than later.”

He claimed the proposed legislation will help the Hono ­lulu Police Department better enforce e-bike regulations.

“And more importantly, I think it creates community expectations about who can ride an e-bike, ” Dos Santos-Tam said. “If you’re 12 years old, you should not be driving down the middle of King Street without a helmet, when you can’t even get a driver’s permit to do the same thing in a car or a moped.”

An approved e-bike bill at the city level, the Council has asserted, also would play into related measures that may emerge from the state Legislature early next year.

Others also addressed the issue at the same meeting.

Kaneohe resident Donald Sakamoto said that as a blind person, he’d previously recommended that the city’s e-bike working group involve the National Federation of the Blind or the Hawaii Association of the Blind to better represent Oahu’s disabled community and give more insight to Bill 52.

Another testifier, Robert Gould, said “a simple solution ” to regulating e-bikes is to classify them the same as mopeds, which in Hawaii requires a driver’s license to operate.

“And at least (e-bikes ) are quiet and don’t stink, ” he said.

According to Dos Santos-Tam, his timeline to finalize Bill 52 includes Tuesday’s e-bike update. He said that meeting will be followed by further recommendations from the working group and the public, which will be presented Nov. 19.

“And hopefully that gets us to a final product that we can pass out, ideally by the end of the year, ” he added.

The Council’s Transportation Committee meeting begins at 2 :30 p.m. inside Honolulu Hale’s Council Chambers, 530 S. King St.