The Brief

L.A. may be the city of the car, but it doesn’t have to be.

Whether you’re looking to cut back on your emissions, or want to connect with your neighborhood on a deeper level — or your soul simply can’t handle another rush hour on the 405 — there are a LOT of reasons to ditch the ol’ automobile.

Cities built for carless travel are safer, greener, and make transportation more efficient. They make getting around cheaper, too.

But the automobile is hardwired into L.A.’s DNA. Our city is literally built around cars — neighborhoods were leveled to make way for freeways, historic buildings were demolished to build surface parking lots.

Stimson Building, on South Spring Street and West 3rd Street, before and after it was demolished and turned into a parking lot in 1963.

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Left: Arnold Hylen. Right: Google Street View

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And it’s not just city infrastructure. We drive to school, we drive to work. We drive to the gym, to the beach, to grandma’s house, the grocery store. How do you part with something that’s so embedded in your daily routine?

How I gave up my car

Before we get into the tips and tricks, I’ll share a bit of my own car-free journey. I wasn’t born with a love for public transit — far from it.

I’m a born-and-raised Angeleno who started driving when I was 17. My first regular commute was a 45-minute slog across three freeways to get from home to high school — and I never once imagined living in L.A. without a car.

A decade or so later when the lease was up on my car in 2021, I decided I may as well try to save some cash and give the car-free life a try. We made a How To LA episode about that process, and my new commute to work, which you can check out here.

But the moral of that episode is: you don’t need to ditch your car completely, tomorrow, in order to get the benefits of going car-free.

Maybe you can’t give up your car for various reasons — that’s totally fine! It’s so expensive to live in L.A. that many people have to live far from where they work. Or maybe you love your 1995 Subaru too much to part with it. I get it.

The goal isn’t to get rid of CARS; it’s to get rid of car-DEPENDENCY. This guide is meant to make that transition a tiny bit easier.

Start small

Change is easiest when change is fun. If going cold turkey is more your speed, skip to Step 5. But if you’re like me, you’ll need a little more convincing before alternative transit in Los Angeles sounds exciting.

Step 1: Find foot-friendly destinations

Find a cafe, bar, or restaurant within walking distance of your home, and make a habit of walking there. Show it off to your friends and brag that you have such a great spot within such a quick walk. If you don’t have anything like that within say a mile of your home, make it a park or a library.

The idea is to train yourself to expect that walking can be exciting and productive. For your first goal, try to go to this spot at least two or three times per week.

A pedestrian crosses Olympic Blvd at Overland Ave as a vehicle turns through the crosswalk.

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Brian Feinzimer / LAist

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Step 2: Shop local, shop often

Most residents in L.A. County live within a mile of their nearest grocery store. In places like West Hollywood, South Gate, Hawthorne, or Echo Park, that number is above 76%. In the valley, Inglewood and Downey, that number is still nearly 60%.

Even in areas known as food deserts like Lynwood or East L.A., at least 39% of residents live within walking distance of a grocery store.

Your closest market might be a lot closer than you think. Of course, not everyone can get around on foot or bicycle, or carry things long distance. But if you’re able to do so, take advantage! Though counterintuitive, it’s been proven to be cheaper and healthier to buy what you need the day you need it, and avoid shopping in bulk.

For your second goal, try buying what you need for dinner after work every day for a week. Breaking routines takes practice and repetition — but it helps when it tastes great and saves you money!

A map of L.A. County that shows the percentage of residents who live within walking distance of a grocery store.

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County of Los Angeles, Department of Public Works

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Ramping up the stakes

By now you’ve fallen in love with a spot that’s walking distance from your home, and you’ve bragged about it to your friends. Maybe you’re still buying your groceries every day or every other day. Nice!

It’s time to start experimenting with your routines.

Step 3: Discover new modes of transit

L.A. has a subway — a fact I’m not ashamed to say took 26 years of living here for me to internalize. We also have the third largest bus fleet in North America, and our flat, wide streets are excellent for bicycling.

Let’s be realistic: none of these are perfect. Bus service can be infrequent, the subway and light rail network has limited connectivity, and the safety of our bike lanes (where they exist) leaves a lot to be desired.

And we have have to be honest about safety concerns on LA Metro. Reports of violent crime last year increased about 14% over pre-pandemic levels. After the stabbing death of a woman at a Metro train stop in Studio City, the Metro Board of Directors declared a state of emergency to step up safety measures, including barriers for bus drivers.

All of this is unsettling and worth considering, depending on where you live, what time of day you'll be riding and your comfort level. And it's also worth framing these safety concerns within the context of the dangers posed by cars.

That all said, from my almost-daily experience riding either the train, my bike or the bus, I'd argue at least one of these alternative modes of transit is a better experience than you may expect.

• Metro: Buses and trains

  Just about everyone living in L.A. County lives within a 5-minute walk from a bus stop or train station. There are 101 train stations operated by LA Metro, including light rail and the subway network, with more on the horizon. There are also 120 bus routes that operate along nearly 12,000 stops throughout the county.

  All services operated by LA Metro, and 26 other agencies across L.A. County, use TAP for fare payment. A $1.75 “tap” is a good deal for 2.5 hours of unlimited transfers throughout all of the services that accept it.

  You can get a physical card for $2 at any train station, or you can use the TAP app on your phone. (From personal experience, the app is the easiest option.)

  All busses are equipped with hydraulic ramps for wheelchairs, and subway and light rail trains have designated areas for people with disabilities on every car. Some subway stations along the D line (Purple) have frequent elevator outages, but the 720 Rapid bus line stops at all the same places and is only a few minutes slower, making it a viable alternative.

  Find the bus and train stops nearest your home, and see where they lead. The Transit App is my top recommendation for finding nearby routes, but Google Maps works pretty well, too.

  My colleagues and I also put together a story on how to ride the bus earlier this year.

  View this post on Instagram

  Choose a spot along one of those routes for food or entertainment, and make an evening of it. Pro tip: if you’re planning to have some adult beverages on your night out, you don’t have to worry about drinking and driving if you’re riding the bus!
  

• Bikes and e-bikes

  Buying a bike doesn’t have to be a huge investment, and it's much cheaper than a car. I got a 1984 classic Italian bike for $300 on Ebay, and after a $50 tuneup at my local bike shop it rides great. If you’re patient, you can find something on Craigslist or other listing sites for even less.

  If an electric bike is more your speed, it’s probably a lot less expensive than you may expect if you take advantage of available incentives.

  You can get up to $2,000 back from the state of California if you make less than three times the federal poverty level, or about $45,000 a year.

  Anyone can get a $500 rebate if they live in Pasadena, and you may be able to get an e-bike for free if you’re a Pacoima resident.
  

• Bike lanes, bike roads, and neighborhood streets

  Now that you have your bike, it’s time to learn where to ride it. This isn’t an extra step in many other cities around the world, where non-motorized travel is a higher priority. Unfortunately, in L.A., it’s not so simple.

  More and more streets are starting to offer protected bike lanes. If you’re lucky enough to have a few of these in your neighborhood, nice!

  If you’re like me, you’re not so lucky.

  I live near 4th Street in Mid City, which is a “designated bike route.” In practice that means faded bicycle decals are painted onto the street and I share a lane with cars. This is the case for most of the bike routes near me.

  Sometimes these streets feel safe enough, but not usually. I often find myself taking lower-trafficked neighborhood streets instead of the official bike route when the official route is also a major car thoroughfare, like Fountain or Vine.

  This map shows all the different bike paths in L.A. County, with distinctions like “Bike Path,” “Bike Lane,” “Bike Route,” and “Bike Blvd.”

  But I’d recommend just choosing the bicycle option on Google Maps, and plan to make adjustments when it asks you to take hop onto something that feels like an urban highway.

  It’s easy to link up a bike route with a train route, which is how I get to Pasadena for work. It’s a little more stressful on a bus, but people do it.

  Important note: Don’t forget to grab yourself a rechargeable headlight and taillight for riding at night, and definitely don’t forget a helmet.

The 217 Metro bus in front of the Hollywood/Vine Station in Hollywood.

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LAist

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Step 4: Identify your loops

This step is easier written than done, but it’s time to modify your routine. Most of our travel is recurring. To and from work, to and from the gym, or to and from a family member’s house.

Identify one of these loops and travel it via public transit, biking, or walking. Then do it again so you get comfortable with the idea.

Then do it again, and again.

Commit to the bit

By now you could lead a walking tour of your neighborhood, and you have a bike or have your TAP card on your phone. You’ve taken the bus for either work or play, and you’ve probably beat your car-driving peers to the destination at least a handful of times.

If that’s you, it might be time to take the final plunge.

Step 5: Sell your dang car

It’s finally time. The moment we’ve been building to all along. Maybe you, like the average Angeleno, have two cars in your household. Or maybe you, like me, finished the lease on your car and want to try out a bike before taking on another expensive lease.

Either way, it’s go time.

Selling your car is actually pretty easy. Apps like Carvana and CarMax give decently competitive prices, and people use Craigslist all the time. As a last resort you can probably sell your car back to your dealer, but that’s usually the least profitable option — especially if you have an end-of-lease purchase option.

(You could also donate your car to LAist to power local journalism!)

When the lease on my Honda Civic ended in 2021, I was able to sell it for about $9,000 more than the end-of-lease purchase price. After DMV fees and taxes, that meant a profit of about $7,000.

(Now that pandemic-level supply chain issues are easing, you might not be able to replicate those numbers. But experts still recommend taking advantage of end-of-lease purchases when possible.)

I purchased my bike for $300, and after a tune-up, some new handlebars, and two years of TAP card payments for my metro fare, I still have over $6,000 left over.

Add that to the savings of NOT having a car payment, not paying for gas or insurance, and I’ve saved a little over $15,000 in 18 months of living car-free.

Epilogue

Going car-free is L.A.’s greenest transit option, but that alone isn't always the strongest motivator. But it’s also great for your wallet, and studies show there’s psychological and economic benefits for people and cities.

If you’re not ready to go all the way and ditch your car for good, that’s OK! But maybe, as you and other Angelenos around you start weaving alternative modes of transit into your life, a less car congested city can become a reality for all of us.

A new law will require local agencies to publicly disclose audio recordings and written records of 911 calls originating from privately run immigration detention facilities. The bill was prompted by CalMatters reporting on alleged sexual assaults at the Otay Mesa Detention Center.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 423, called the Detention Facility Transparency Act, on Tuesday. It was one of 21 immigration-related bills in a package his office announced the same day.

The law will require local agencies to turn over recordings and written records of 911 calls from privately run detention facilities, if a member of the public requests them. It includes an exception if an active investigation is underway and requires redacting the names of affected individuals.

“Well, it goes without saying, these past two years, Donald Trump has brought fear and has brought anxiety, disruption and stress to our immigrant communities,” Newsom said in a recorded video statement on his website.

“So, today, I sign a number of bills to strengthen transparency and to strengthen accountability and oversight over federal immigration enforcement and civil detention in our state,” the governor said.

State Sen. Lena Gonzalez, a Democrat from Long Beach, introduced SB 423 as state investigations and courts found serious gaps in essential medical care within the facilities. She said the aim was to stop private operators, and the agencies that work alongside them, from keeping what happens behind detention walls from the public's view.

In February, L.A. Taco reported that detainees inside Otay Mesa were throwing lotion bottles wrapped with notes about conditions inside over the wall of the facility to organizers standing outside.

“For 280 days we haven’t eaten a single piece of fruit, banana, apple, orange, or anything fresh," an Otay Mesa detainee wrote, the news outlet reported. "We are all in one big room with no doors or windows. We can’t see any grass or trees. We are all constantly sick.”

Gonzalez, who is chair of the Legislative Latino Caucus, said no person “should have to resort to throwing notes over the walls of a detention facility to have their needs met and their voices heard.”

Earlier this year, CalMatters sought information, including 911 audio records and other reports, about alleged serious incidents at detention facilities through a California Public Records Act request. While a San Diego County sheriff’s spokesperson said the agency was not investigating those cases, he said he was unable to turn over additional records because they were part of “a law enforcement investigation.”

“When journalists and reporters attempted to obtain records about reported incidents at these facilities through the Public Records Act, they faced severe pushback from law enforcement, citing vague investigatory records exemptions, despite there being no active investigation,” said Gonzalez.

Immigrant Defense Advocates and the First Amendment Coalition co-sponsored the bill.

“The governor has sent a powerful message: No more secrecy. SB 423 makes clear that 911 calls and related records about events in detention must be released upon request. This will shed more light on a notoriously opaque system, leading to stronger oversight and accountability,” Ginny LaRoe, Advocacy Director, First Amendment Coalition, said in a written statement.

Gonzalez’s bill was one of several detention oversight bills Newsom signed Tuesday. Others impose a new 25% tax on private detention facilities, expand health, safety and oversight requirements for the centers, and add to the state attorney general’s oversight role.

The new laws take effect Jan. 1.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

Six Flags Magic Mountain is retiring its famous X2 roller coaster amid lawsuits alleging serious brain injury caused by the ride.

The Southern California theme park said Tuesday that it is permanently shuttering the ride after nearly 20 years. Six Flags recently settled a wrongful-death lawsuit from the family of a 22-year-old man who died after riding the coaster in 2022, and three more lawsuits alleging traumatic brain injuries were filed last week.

“While X2 consistently passed a multitude of safety tests, we have decided to close the ride because we believe it’s the right thing to do,” park President Brian Oerding said in an online announcement. “Ride safety is a cornerstone of our business, and when we see guest confidence affected, we take it seriously.”

The ride has been closed since the evening of July 12, after two women who rode the coaster less than a week apart both needed to be rushed to the hospital after they exited.

One of them, 25-year-old Naomi Greer-Wilkinson, collapsed shortly after the ride ended and was found to have massive brain bleeding inside the skull that required emergency brain surgery. She remains in a vegetative state in the hospital, unable to speak or move and dependent on a ventilator. Her family filed a lawsuit against Six Flags on her behalf.

Her attorneys said more than 100 people claimed they suffered brain injuries from the roller coaster in the past two years, and more lawsuits would be filed in the coming weeks.

According to the Six Flags Magic Mountain website, the X2 roller coaster reaches a top speed of 76 mph (122 kph) and has a total length of 3,610 feet (1,100 meters). The seats rotate 360 degrees “so your body will be flipping around the entire time,” and the ride features two “raven turns” — half loops that turn into sheer drops midway.

It debuted at the park in 2002 under the name X as the world’s first “fourth-dimension” roller coaster and reopened in 2008 as X2 with new trains and special effects. The uniqueness of the ride drew thrill-seekers from around the world and garnered a fervent fanbase.

The park settled a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the family of Christopher Hawley, a 22-year-old who died the day after he rode X2. He was taken to the hospital after the ride with severe brain bleeding. The medical examiner’s office said his death was from blunt head trauma. The case was settled at the end of August, a few days before the trial was scheduled to start.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed the administration to resume, for now, deportations of migrants to countries that are not identified in their removal orders, handing President Donald Trump another victory in his aggressive immigration agenda.

The court also said it would take up the case for full oral argument in December.

The court's brief order granting the petition did not outline a reason for staying a lower-court order that blocked the third-country deportations. It noted the court's three liberal justices objected to staying the order.

Solicitor General John Sauer told the justices the third-country deportation policy amounted to "an essential tool to remove certain aliens, including some of the worst criminal aliens" in court papers earlier this month. The administration said it has used the policy to deport tens of thousands of noncitizens to Mexico and countries in Africa and Latin America after the migrants' home countries refused to accept them.

"While certain aliens may benefit from stalling their removal, the Nation does not," Sauer wrote in an emergency application Sept. 24.

The action by the high court marks the third time the justices have rejected efforts by U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston to pause the deportations, which the judge said violate due process rights and fail to give detainees meaningful notice to raise arguments that they have credible fears of torture or abuse in the countries where they could be sent.

The National Immigration Litigation Alliance, which is representing migrants facing deportation, said in court papers that their clients are facing significant harms.

"The record shows that class members removed without meaningful notice or an opportunity to present country-specific protection claims have faced prolonged and arbitrary detention, beatings and sexual assault, disappearance, and chain refoulement to countries from which the United States had already granted them protection," wrote lawyer Trina Realmuto. "These harms cannot be undone."

The Department of Homeland Security said Murphy's rulings have created a logistical nightmare, including canceled flights, potential diplomatic clashes, and a lag in removing people convicted of assault and drug crimes.

The administration argued that if a country has assured Secretary of State Marco Rubio that it will not engage in persecution or torture, that should be enough to deport a noncitizen to a country that's not their own.

The Supreme Court's conservative supermajority has recognized the president has substantial authority over the border. Last summer, in a 6-to-3 decision, the court ruled President Trump has sweeping power to end the temporary protected status program for people who can't return to their home countries because of wars and natural disasters.

Copyright 2026 NPR

The bell had already rung on a recent morning at Newport Beach’s Ensign Intermediate School. But two of the school’s students hadn’t made it to class. Instead, they were sitting on a sidewalk across from campus, detained by a police officer for parking their e-bikes on the street.

The situation at Ensign has gotten messy since the school district, Newport-Mesa Unified, voted to ban e-bikes from middle and elementary school campuses, citing safety concerns. Many students kept riding their e-bikes to school anyway, parking them in swarms in the surrounding neighborhood.

The neighbors did not like this. Shouting matches ensued between students and homeowners. At least one student returned from class to find her tires deflated.

The city responded to the tension by putting up “No e-bike parking” signs on several streets.

The city of Newport Beach prohibited e-bikes on some streets around Ensign Intermediate School after neighbors complained.

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Jill Replogle

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LAist

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“I wouldn't want it in my neighborhood either, like, I get it,” said Corey Gulbranson, who got a $100 parking ticket on behalf of his daughter, one of the Ensign students detained for allegedly illegally parking her e-bike. “But at the end of the day, we're just trying to get our kids to school on a legal mode of transportation.”

Crucial teen commuting tools? Or dangerous devices?

E-bikes and significantly more powerful e-motorcycles have become very popular in many Orange County suburbs, where the streets are wide, public transit is spotty, and distances are longer than some are willing to pedal on a regular bike. For teens and tweens, e-bikes provide a taste of independence. They also relieve parents of some of their driving duties. Plus, e-bikes can replace polluting cars.

But their popularity has brought an alarming increase in serious injuries, especially among young riders.

At Providence Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, e-bike crashes are now sending more kids to the ER than any other cause, according to Dr. Tetsuya Takeuchi, the hospital’s trauma medical director. More than 70% of those patients had some level of head injury, from minor concussions to devastating brain damage, he said, often because they were not wearing a helmet.

But even Takeuchi recognizes the nearly irresistible draw of e-bikes.

“If you ride one, you realize how easy it is to go everywhere with it,” he said.  “I am not by any means surprised at how popular this is, especially amongst kids.”

‘Bicycle-shaped devices’

Not all e-bikes are equally fast, or equally dangerous. California uses a three-tier system, developed by the bike industry, to classify e-bikes depending on:

• engine power
• max speed
• whether the bike has pedals 
• whether a cyclist has to use those pedals before the engine kicks in 

California law prohibits children under age 16 from riding Class 3 e-bikes with engines capable of reaching 28 miles per hour. In reality, though, many kids are riding e-vehicles that go faster — in some cases, much faster.

“There are lots of what I will call 'bicycle-shaped devices' being ridden,” said Asha Weinstein Agrawal, a research associate at the Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State University. “Some of them are legal e-bikes. Some of them are not.”

Agrawal recently co-authored a 210-page report on e-bike safety. It includes data collected from middle and high schools in Marin and San Mateo counties, which showed that only 12% of students’ e-bikes fit into the legal classification system. The other 88% were more powerful than legally allowed under California law.

A Newport Beach Police officer tickets a middle schooler for parking her e-bike on the street across from Ensign Middle School on Sept. 4, 2026.

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Jill Replogle

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Any bicycle-shaped device that goes faster than 30 miles per hour is technically an e-motorcycle, which requires a special driver’s license and, if ridden on public roads, insurance and registration.

Agrawal said it’s hard for parents, and even police officers, to figure out what’s legal and what’s not.

“Nobody understands this,” she said. “It’s very hard to enforce.”

The crackdown

Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer has taken some unusual approaches to addressing the e-bike dilemma. To date, he has pressed criminal charges — including for child endangerment — against four parents after their children were involved in collisions, all of them on e-motorcycles, not e-bikes.

One of those parents, a woman from Aliso Viejo, was charged with three felonies, including involuntary manslaughter, after her 14-year-old son allegedly struck and killed an 81-year-old man while doing wheelies in the street in Lake Forest on an e-motorcycle souped up to reach 60 miles per hour.

People with e-bikes, e-scooters and e-motos move through the long line at the Orange County District Attorney's buyback event at Angel Stadium, Sept. 13, 2026.

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The DA’s office said it has also sent letters to retailers reminding them of a ban on selling products used to modify e-bikes to go faster than legally allowed.

Spitzer recently tried another novel approach: buybacks. On a recent Sunday, hundreds of people brought their e-bikes, e-scooters and e-motos to an event at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, hoping to turn them in for up to a thousand dollars in gift cards. The county event was paid for with $100,000 in asset forfeiture funds.

One man near the front of the line said he had arrived at 1 a.m. By the time the event started at 10 a.m., sheriff’s deputies were turning people away.

“Holy smokes,” Spitzer said from behind a podium mounted in the parking lot. “Look at the participation. … And you can see why, because we have a serious problem here in Orange County and across the nation with individuals who have e-bikes and e-motorcycles.”

Spitzer spoke about the dangers, but also the attractiveness of a high-powered personal vehicle, especially for teen boys.

 “We're not gonna change our internal DNA about who we are as young people and the fact we wanna go places, and we wanna experiment, and quite frankly, we like fast things,” he said. “ But the fact of the matter is when you have a machine, and you don't understand its capabilities, you can find yourself in harm's way very quickly before you can control that mechanism.”

Orange County District Attorney is testing out a range of strategies to crack down on illegal e-bikes and e-motos, including a buyback event at Angel Stadium on Sept. 13, 2026.

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Jill Replogle

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Are unsafe riders ‘ruining it for other people’?

Paul Dumont drove to the buyback event all the way from Chatsworth in hopes of exchanging five e-bikes he had bought for his kids and grandkids.

“They got injured on them when we first got them, so they've been sitting in storage,” he said of the bikes.

Dumont said he wished he had bought less powerful e-bikes. “But I bought them the best ones,” he said. “I thought they'd be better.”

Denise Mills and her 17-year-old son Nathanael came from Torrance to turn in three e-motorcycles that he had been riding to and from his high school last year. He stopped after the school told him it was illegal. A new state law defining e-motorcycles took effect in January.

A student at Ensign Middle School runs to campus after parking his e-bike at a nearby park, Sept. 4, 2026.

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“That was very unfortunate because it's his primary source of transportation,” Mills said. “Now it's his dad and I.”

Nathanael said he had logged several thousand miles without an accident.

“ Partially it's, like, people ruining it for other people,” he said of efforts to tighten the rules for young riders.

Local leaders grapple with the flood of e-bikes

Cities and school districts are testing a variety of approaches to decrease e-bike crashes and injuries, from prohibiting riding on sidewalks to outright bans for young riders. The Brea City Council has even discussed using police drones to follow unsafe youth riders home in order to inform their parents.

In a more typical approach, the Huntington Beach City School District requires all student e-bike commuters to pass a safety course in order to get a permit to park their bike on campus. Newport-Mesa has a similar program for high schoolers.

Marin County limits youth under age 16 to riding Class 1 “pedal-assist” e-bikes, which have motors that kick in only while pedaling, and shut off once the bike reaches 20 miles per hour. The ban on more powerful e-bikes for young riders is part of a pilot program approved by the state legislature that sunsets in 2029.

At the federal level, O.C. Congressman Dave Min, D-Irvine, co-authored a bill earlier this year, the Safe SPEEDS Act, that would develop nationwide safety standards for e-bikes, including minimum age recommendations.

A dilemma for parents

Parents of student e-bike commuters have said they do not oppose regulating the vehicles, and they want authorities to crack down on dangerous and illegal riding. But an outright ban goes too far, they’ve said.

“ I know there are kids that are a little wild,” said Kellie Newcombe, whose 13-year-old daughter is still riding her pedal-assist bike from their home in Costa Mesa to Ensign Intermediate School in Newport Beach.

“That is not my child. That is not her friends. They are so ridiculously safe and by the book,” she said. “It's just super frustrating that they would say every kid cannot ride an e-bike.”

A spokesperson for Newport-Mesa Unified told LAist in an email that the school district’s new e-bike restrictions have gone smoothly and are helping to reinforce safety. But that is not how Gulbranson and Newcombe see it.

“We've had my daughter intimidated by multiple neighbors now,” Gulbranson said. “This whole guise of doing it under safety is totally misguided.”

Newcombe said she worries about her daughter’s safety more now that an increasing number of parents are driving their kids to school.

“They're in a rush because the traffic is insane,” she said. Plus, her daughter now has to cross a busy street to get to campus.

Newcombe said she wishes the school district would work with local leaders and police to enforce e-bike rules and to create safer paths to school for responsible riders.