Encinitas city officials are debating new restrictions on e-bike use after residents complained for months about riders weaving through dog walkers and pedestrians at two of the city's busiest parks. The proposals under discussion include a minimum age of 12 to operate an e-bike, temporary seizure of bikes ridden recklessly, and new speed limits on trails and pathways.
Most of the complaints have come from Encinitas Community Park and Sun Vista Park, according to Mayor Bruce Ehlers, as reported by The San Diego Union-Tribune. At Sun Vista Park, Diegueno Middle School students have been speeding along a concrete pathway near the park's dog-play zone, often riding through after school lets out. The city has already extended fencing along that pathway in an attempt to keep young e-bike riders off the grass, but the complaints have continued.
Council Directs Staff to Study Options
The Encinitas City Council has encouraged city employees to explore ways to reduce e-bike conflicts on parkland and popular trails, according to the Union-Tribune's reporting. Council members have floated a range of fixes beyond an age minimum, including more signage, stepped-up enforcement, additional speed limits for trails and park areas, and expanded bike-safety education programs for young riders.
Deputy Mayor Jim O'Hara requested that the e-bike issue be placed on the council's agenda early this year, and he has pushed several specific proposals. Those include a major safety education campaign featuring banners and pamphlets, along with better education for buyers at the point of sale, since e-bike retailers currently sell the devices to minors without much additional guidance, per the Union-Tribune account.
Under the San Diego County Sheriff's Office, which provides policing services in Encinitas, deputies could temporarily seize e-bikes from riders engaged in reckless behavior or repeated offenses. City code already requires that any bike carrying a passenger have a seat for that passenger, and violations of e-bike rules are enforceable through citations. Whether Encinitas ultimately adopts the 12-year-old minimum remains undecided, since city data suggests there may be relatively few riders younger than 12 on e-bikes in the first place, the Union-Tribune reported.
Crash Numbers Climb as Council Weighs Response
The debate comes as e-bike use has increased across all age groups since Encinitas began amending its bike-use codes in June 2023, according to the Union-Tribune. The Sheriff's Office reported 59 e-bike collisions in the Encinitas region between 2022 and 2024, including 30 in 2025 alone. Shane Watts, captain commanding the North County Coastal Station, said 14 e-bike collisions had occurred so far this year, with youth riders involved in half of them.
Two of this year's collision cases involved riders who fell off their bikes; both of those riders were older than 70. Watts and city officials have said the problem behaviors mostly come from 13- to 15-year-old riders, a pattern that has shaped where the council is focusing its attention, including at Encinitas Community Park, which spans 44 acres.
Not everyone at the parks sees the riders as the enemy. Dave Knopp said e-bike riders should be able to enjoy the park while still respecting other park users, reflecting a tension city leaders are trying to balance as they draft new rules.
State Law Opens the Door for a County-Wide Pilot
Encinitas has the legal room to act because of a state law establishing an age limit for e-bike riders. California Assembly Bill 2234, signed in September 2024, created the San Diego Electric Bicycle Safety Pilot Program running through January 2029, explicitly authorizing jurisdictions within San Diego County to bar children under 12 from operating Class 1 and Class 2 e-bikes, according to LegiScan. Before that pilot, state law only governed age limits for the faster Class 3 e-bikes.
Several San Diego County cities have already used that authority to set their own 12-year-old age limits. Carlsbad adopted updated regulations that took effect in March, establishing the 12-year-old minimum, allowing police to temporarily impound e-bikes from reckless young riders, and requiring both the minor and a parent to complete an in-person safety course before getting the bike back, according to the City of Carlsbad. The City of San Diego followed in August with an ordinance banning under-12 riders, requiring permanent seats for passengers, and offering a 60-day warning period before $25 citations begin, as reported by NBC 7 San Diego. Hoodline previously reported on La Mesa's crackdown on underage e-bike riders under the same pilot program.
A Fatal 2023 Crash Still Shapes the Debate
The push for stricter e-bike rules in Encinitas traces back to June 2023, when the city declared a local state of emergency for bicycle and e-bike safety following the death of 15-year-old San Dieguito Academy student Brodee Champlain-Kingman, who was killed while riding an e-bike on El Camino Real, according to The Coast News. That declaration mirrored one Carlsbad had passed the year before. Months later, State Sen. Catherine Blakespear presented Encinitas with $3.09 million in state grant funding for the Santa Fe Drive Corridor Improvements Project, aimed at building protected bike lanes along key school routes near San Dieguito Academy, according to Times of San Diego. Encinitas has also grappled with other recent traffic deaths involving teenagers, including 17-year-old Seraphina Fadick, who was killed crossing El Camino del Norte, as Hoodline reported in coverage of county traffic deaths.
Research presented in March by Rady Children's Hospital and UC San Diego found that e-bike accidents involving children in San Diego rose by more than 300% between 2019 and 2023, with young e-bike riders nearly 2.5 times more likely to sustain extremity orthopaedic injuries than pedal cyclists, according to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Researchers noted the higher speeds involved produce collision forces comparable to low-speed motorcycle crashes. A separate UC San Diego study found e-bike injuries among people younger than 18 increased by 300% between 2019 and 2023 in San Diego County specifically, underscoring why age limits have become the focal point of city council discussions across the region.
Statewide Rules Target Speed and Visibility
Encinitas's local debate is unfolding alongside a broader statewide surge in e-bike trauma. A UC San Diego Health study published in July in Trauma Surgery and Acute Care Open reported that California e-bike collisions jumped from two in 2018 to 1,506 in 2024, with children age 14 and younger accounting for a disproportionately high share of injured riders, according to UC San Diego Health.
State lawmakers have also moved to address the equipment side of the problem. Assembly Bill 544, which took effect January 1, requires all e-bikes to carry a red rear reflector or light at all times during operation, not just after dark, according to CBS 8 San Diego. Assembly Bill 1774, effective since January 2025, made it illegal to sell devices designed to unlock an e-bike's speed beyond legal caps of 20 mph for Class 1 and 2 bikes and 28 mph for Class 3, according to the Mineta Transportation Institute. Lawmakers passed that ban after finding modified devices and speed-hack apps were effectively turning e-bikes into unregistered motor vehicles, a concern Hoodline has tracked in its coverage of speed-demon e-motos near schools.
For now, no formal ordinance has been finalized in Encinitas, and it remains unclear whether the council will ultimately adopt the 12-year-old age minimum given the city's own uncertainty about how many riders that young are actually on the road. City staff continue to weigh the age limit alongside signage, enforcement, education campaigns, and speed limits as the council works toward a final proposal.
