Folsom City Council members discussed proposed e-bike and e-conveyance ordinances on September 8, 2026, and directed staff to return with revisions. The proposal, which combines two ordinances first introduced in September, aims to curb reckless riding that has flooded local police with calls and left parks and playgrounds damaged.
The council had delayed formal action on the original pair of ordinances, instead directing city staff to merge the proposals and come back with revisions, according to the Sacramento Bee. The original proposals were sponsored by the Folsom Police Department and the Folsom Parks and Recreation Department. The ordinance covers what the city calls “e-conveyances” — a broad category spanning e-bikes, e-scooters, motorized bicycles, electric motorcycles and other electrically powered devices.
Behavior the Ordinance Would Target
The rules would prohibit stunt and trick riding, including wheelies and acrobatic tricks, along with swerving around traffic and carrying passengers without a proper seat. Earlier reporting from the City of Folsom described the same behaviors — stunts, unauthorized passengers, failing to yield to pedestrians, handheld-phone use while riding and disregarding posted signs — as central to the original proposals presented in September.
The measure would reinforce the existing 15-mph speed limit on city bicycle paths, a limit the city's own guidance already asks riders to follow on its bike-trail network, per Folsom's police department.
Parks, Playgrounds and a Softer Touch on Access
City officials have reported that playgrounds and sports courts or fields have been damaged by the devices, and the ordinance would prohibit e-conveyances in those spaces as well as in landscaped or unpaved areas adjacent to bicycle paths. Folsom Parks and Recreation has spent more than $37,000 over six months repairing damage attributed to improper e-bike use, according to the Folsom Times.
Still, the council isn't moving to ban the devices from parks outright. Instead, the ordinance would allow e-bikes and other devices on paved park paths and walkways, applying a reduced speed limit rather than shutting riders out entirely — reflecting council members' preference, as described by the Sacramento Bee, for allowing lower-speed travel on designated paved routes.
Fines Climb After Council Pushback
The revised proposal would set a $100 fine for a first offense, $250 for a second violation within one year, and $500 for additional violations in that same period. That marks an increase from the ordinance's earlier form: the first-offense fine is $50 higher and the second-offense fine $150 higher than in the original proposal. The city council had requested steeper fines for first- and second-time offenders after the first draft stalled.
That original draft, reported by the Folsom Times in September, had called for administrative penalties of $50 for a first violation, $100 for a second and $500 for subsequent violations within a year — a structure also described elsewhere as $100 for a first offense, $250 for a second and $500 for a third, according to KCRA. Parents or guardians of minors could face administrative penalties for violations, though they would not be held criminally responsible.
Calls for Service Keep Climbing
The numbers driving the council's urgency are stark. Folsom police have received more than 580 calls for service related to e-conveyance incidents since January, already surpassing the more than 540 logged during all of 2025, the Sacramento Bee reported. Folsom Police Sergeant Derek Koupal said the ordinance focuses on reckless riding reported by community members.
Folsom's e-bike-related calls for service climbed from just 23 in 2023 to 350 in 2025, with more than 90% involving juveniles, according to the Folsom Times. Police also reported that e-bike-related collisions rose from four in 2023 to 12 in 2025, with collisions doubling that year compared with the two years prior — juveniles were involved in 72% of those crashes, and riders were found at fault in 70% of them, per the same outlet's reporting.
A Regional Pattern, and One Legal Limit
Folsom isn't alone in grappling with the surge. Elk Grove and Galt have also tightened rules governing e-bikes and other electric alternative transportation, while Winters adopted rules allowing police, under limited circumstances, to impound electric devices operated unsafely by minors, the Sacramento Bee noted.
Folsom staff has said the city could not legally adopt the kind of blanket device impoundment some residents have requested, citing Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable seizures, per the Sacramento Bee.
