The yellow lines flash past right under my feet—or under my car, I should say. I’m driving along the road with anticipation to go support the Monarch football game when suddenly, I go flying backward. The brakes have been hit.
I look around to figure out why, and that’s when I see it. Some teenager is on an electric bike, swerving about the road as if he owns it, as if there are no rules whatsoever. He has come fully out of the bike lane, into one lane, then all the way across the median.
I understand that there are no turn signals on the bike, but there is a bike lane and a gesture you can make before turning. This guy clearly doesn’t know the rules of the road.
The problem is, electric bikes suck in teenagers like venus fly traps suck in bugs. Actual bikes are just too exhausting. Legs slowly give out throughout the ride and hands grow raw from gripping the handlebars. Plus, e-bikes just look so cool.
Based on our school’s bike rack, roughly one third of the total number of bikes ridden to school are electric. This means that a good chunk of the people using e-bikes are teens aged 14 to18, meaning it’s hard for them to know the rules of the road since half of them haven’t taken Drivers Ed yet. They are putting themselves and others in danger. Not to mention that not wearing helmets has somehow become cool. Right, because head injuries are so cool.
According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), there have been at least 104 e-bike-related deaths from 2017 to 2022. This number continues to rise because of one big reason: the main investors of e-bikes are teens aged 14 to 18.
I know from experience that e-bikes look cool and are fun to ride. I can gain lots of speed and fly past all the slow walkers or other bikers on the sidewalk. I feel free as I fly past them. However, according to Colorado law, all bikes are prohibited from being on the sidewalk by local ordinances and traffic control devices. This leaves only one option: bikers must ride on the road.
Most roads have bike lanes to make biking on the road more accessible. Some roads don’t have bike lanes, which makes things a little bit harder. If you are on one of these roads, you should know road laws and biking signals so that cars know what you are doing and won’t hit you. I keep telling you to know the rules of the road before you get an e-bike, but how are you supposed to do that? Take a class? Haha, funny.
In all seriousness, though, yes. For anyone who already has an e-bike or is thinking of getting one, it is essential to take a Drivers Ed course to learn the basic road signals bikers can use to let fellow bikers or cars know what they’re doing. Here are some starting signals you can use on a bike, according to Colorado bike law: to turn left, extend your left arm horizontally. To turn right, extend your right arm horizontally. To stop, extend your hand and arm downward. These are just a few of the important gestures you can use to signal to the cars on the road.
I know that you have to be 14 and close to your 15th birthday to take the class, so it is a little time-sensitive. But still. Take the class.
I can already hear the arguments saying that you shouldn’t have to wait that long to get an e-bike. Here is what I’m saying. I don’t know when being unsafe got cool, but please, for your safety and others’, listen to this. Wear a helmet. Wait until you have a permit. Maybe even wait until you have a license. Know the rules of the road before getting on an e-bike.
No one wants to be death #105.