Chino council members press for stronger e-bike enforcement as summer approaches

Council members and city staff on Tuesday highlighted growing safety concerns about electric bicycles and urged faster action ahead of summer.

Councilmember Mark Lucio said he has seen groups of children riding e-bikes unsafely, sometimes on sidewalks and through stop signs, and asked the police and staff to provide a policy the council could act on. “I think we really need to move on this and start doing some enforcement on it before, you know, we make the news that one of our kids gets killed,” Lucio said, describing riders doing wheelies and using streets in ways that endanger others.

City Attorney (speaker 22) pointed to a recent criminal action in Orange County against a parent in an e-bike collision as a possible deterrent and a model other jurisdictions might follow.

Chief Minson of the Chino Police Department said officers have been issuing citations and impounding some e-bikes while staff work with traffic engineering on a municipal code section tailored to the city. “We are working on that municipal code section and it’s our priority,” Minson said. He added that relying only on the California Vehicle Code has limits and a local ordinance will help enforcement and tracking.

Minson also noted public outreach and school-based options under discussion and described a regional problem: “It’s a problem everywhere.” The department said it has done education and social-media outreach in addition to enforcement.

Next steps: staff and police indicated they will return with proposed code language and enforcement options for the council to consider; no vote or ordinance was enacted Tuesday.