Galt police begin citing, towing illegal e-bikes after surge in reckless riding
The Galt Police Department is cracking down on the unsafe use of electric bikes.
After seeing a surge in reckless riders, Galt police said they will now be citing riders and towing bikes that don't fall under the standard three classes of electric bikes, which offer either pedal- or throttle-assist up to certain speeds.
Officers say the decision isn't something they rushed into.
"We certainly do receive complaints — not about people riding e-bikes, but about people riding e-bikes in unsafe, illegal and dangerous ways, disobeying traffic laws, running red lights, stop signs, cutting through traffic," said Corporal Greg Steele with Galt police.
The first illegal bike was towed over the weekend.
An e-bike without pedals makes it more of an electric motorcycle than a bike, something police say they're seeing more of as those kinds become more accessible and less expensive.
"If it has no pedals and looks like a motorcycle, then legally, it's treated like a motorcycle," Steele said.
Galt police spent the last six months on an education campaign, mostly geared toward youth.
"We've worked extra hard to get this information out. We flooded our social media with information about it. We've gone out to the schools with our school resource officers to do this in-person education," Steele said.
Now, they're in the enforcement phase. If officers catch you on an illegal e-bike or riding unsafely on one, you can expect to be cited and have it towed away.
"It's mostly younger people that are the problem. I hate to be the old man who says that, but that seems to be the case," said Galt resident Mitchell Dennison.
Dennison is an avid e-bike rider. He rides his through town and even to the grocery store, but lately, he's been nervous about other e-bike riders.
"They'll swerve left and right, just not being good drivers, basically," Dennison said. "The biggest part that I see is for electric motorcycles. You don't pedal, you just go, and some of them are very fast."