The first day of school in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District on Monday, Aug. 17, was also the first day of a new ban on electric bikes and all other electric vehicles, such as scooters and boards, at its K-8 campuses.
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High school students are still allowed to ride e-bikes and similar transportation onto campus as long as they have a sticker showing they’ve attended a California Highway Patrol safety class for e-bikes; middle schoolers also have to take a similar class for pedal bicycles. Upon completion, they also get a sticker.
The district is the first in California to ban the electric transports among younger students, said Annette Franco, the district’s spokesperson.
“Bikes found parked on campus without proper permits are issued warning hangers,” she said. “Bikes not allowed on campus are locked by school personnel, and parents must come to pick them up.”
District officials said parents were reminded about the ban over the summer, and so far compliance has gone well. And among the high school students, Franco said many have completed the safety training courses.
District trustees banned e-bikes for younger students because of a mounting number of accidents and injuries resulting from their use, district officials have said, citing data from the Newport Beach Police Department and Hoag Hospital.
Dave Paglia, who lives near Mariners Elementary School in Dover Shores and has three children in the affected age group, said he is hopeful the restrictions might spill over and lead to more responsible use of e-bikes and other electric vehicles in general.
“It may not be perfect what the district is doing,” he said. “But they’re doing their best; I know it will be disruptive to some parents, but we can’t keep having these accidents.”
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Paglia said he worries that the larger problem of irresponsible riding isn’t being solved. He and his wife do not support their children owning e-bikes, he said.
He described driving on Irvine Avenue in Newport Beach and narrowly avoiding a collision with a youth on an e-bike.
“If I had hit him, I would’ve been crushed,” he said.
Bill Johns, whose two sons each have an e-bike, said the district’s action is misplaced.
“It’s punishing the masses for the sins of a few,” he said, adding that last year he rode to school from his Costa Mesa home with his sons through Back Bay at least four times a week.
“We just thoroughly enjoyed every moment,” he said.
He said others who also opposed the ban asked the district for numbers showing rising problems with e-bike use and were never given any.
He said that instead of the parking lots at Ensign Intermediate School being filled with e-bikes, parents waited in their cars on Monday for 30 minutes to drop off and pick up their children.
And he thinks the campus ban will only lead kids to find a way around the rule.
“Eventually the kids are going to start riding their bikes and start locking them up at Westcliff and against poles and just fill the entire neighborhood with locked-up bikes,” he said. “They can’t control that.”
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