00:01We made mention of it yesterday in Heather's News, but we said let's wait for Greg to come back to
00:06talk e-bike bans in some of our local communities.
00:09So, Heather, just to reset for people.
00:11So, Berkeley just banned e-bikes.
00:13This is on sidewalks and in city parks.
00:16They say the place you're allowed to ride or drive e-bikes is going to be in bike lanes only.
00:24And this is not the first city to ban e-bikes.
00:27I think Dearborn Heights is another city that has done this, Grosse Pointe Woods, and then South Lyon has some
00:34rules,
00:35and Rochester Hills has some rules in downtown areas about where you can and cannot ride e-bikes or e
00:42-scooters or things like that.
00:44Even the mention of this yesterday, we were flooded with response.
00:48How do you want this handled in your community?
00:51248-539-9797.
00:54What do we do with e-bikes?
00:57Because they're in this weird in-between.
00:59They can go up to, what, 30 miles an hour?
01:02Yeah, 20 to 30 miles an hour.
01:04Greg, you are an e-biker.
01:06You put the speedometer on it?
01:08I have put a speedometer on it.
01:10The governor kicks in at about 20 miles an hour.
01:13And I should clarify, I think it is more correctly categorized as a hybrid bike.
01:19I still got a pedal to make it go.
01:22Okay.
01:23Do you plug it in?
01:25Yeah.
01:26Okay.
01:26So it's got a battery?
01:27Yeah.
01:28Okay.
01:28Okay.
01:28I didn't know if it was like the hamster wheel that generates the energy.
01:32Right.
01:32Generates its own power.
01:33No, not quite.
01:34Like, how do you feel about these?
01:35Should they be on sidewalks?
01:36No.
01:37No.
01:38Bikes should be on bikes.
01:39And especially the e-bikes that I do see in my neighborhood and my community as well.
01:45Those should be on roads.
01:49Because it's not appropriate for them to be on sidewalks when it's going to be...
01:57It would be like a college football player playing high school football.
02:01Yeah.
02:02That's funny.
02:03Right.
02:03Yeah.
02:03Like, the bikes, in my opinion, the only bikes that should be on sidewalks are kids on their bikes.
02:11If you're an adult or even a teenager and you've got a, quote, unquote, grown-up bike,
02:17you know, obviously, when you're starting to talk about law, you're going to have to define
02:20what that actually is.
02:21You should be on the side of the road.
02:24So then should there be age requirements for these?
02:27Or are there age requirements for e-bikes?
02:29Because I see a lot of young children, like 10 and up, let's say, 14-year-olds on e-bikes.
02:34And they're on the road.
02:36Well...
02:36That's where they would need to be in this world.
02:38Like, Greg's analogy would be, he said, if the bike, e-bike is on the sidewalk, it's
02:43like a college player in high school.
02:45Well, the e-bike on the road is like a Mack football player trying to play in the NFL.
02:51I mean, the roads go, I mean, cars on the road are going much faster.
02:55And these young people don't know necessarily the rules of the road.
02:59Correct.
03:00Because they haven't had driver's training.
03:01Because they haven't been there yet.
03:02So should we put additional, like a limit on that?
03:04You can't be 10 years old on an e-bike on the road?
03:08Well, I mean, so in our neighborhood, we don't have sidewalks.
03:12So if the kids, let's just say Jack was 12 or 13, very capable of riding a bike, I would
03:22be fine with him riding the bike in the road in our neighborhood.
03:26I'm also not going to let Teddy ride his bike in the road because he's got no awareness of
03:33anything around him.
03:34So there's a parenting decision that has to be made in regards to, are you safe on the
03:41road or on the sidewalk to be even by yourself?
03:45And this does go back to parenting of, I'm going to get you this e-bike.
03:50I think it's up to them.
03:51If there's not going to be any type of laws or education that's in place, then it's up
03:56to the parent to say, when you get to the stop sign, you have to stop.
04:00You have to look both ways and then you can proceed.
04:03Or like what side of the road to ride your bike on?
04:05Yeah.
04:06Or because like when you walk, you want to walk facing traffic.
04:10You want to walk on the left side, right?
04:12So you can see.
04:12Yeah.
04:12When you're riding the bike, you go with the flow of traffic.
04:14Yeah.
04:14Right.
04:16But it's one thing to say, well, my kid knows.
04:19Well, that's your interpretation.
04:20But if your 12-year-old's getting in my way with...
04:23Or if they're blowing through the stop sign.
04:24Yeah.
04:25Now it's my problem.
04:27So how should cities handle this, townships handle this?
04:29Do you have any stories with e-bikes where you're going, this is out of control?
04:32Because there are a lot of people who feel that way.
04:33To take it a step further, and you mentioned it, Heather, in the news story, it is some
04:38of these cities have banned them at parks.
04:42Yes.
04:42Most of them have banned them at parks.
04:44Right.
04:44And so then you have the quote-unquote bike path that e-bikes aren't allowed on.
04:53Right.
04:53Right?
04:53Yeah.
04:54Yeah.
04:54And so that's...
04:55But they could be on the road on a park?
04:57At a park?
04:58Or no?
04:58Just no e-bikes in this park in general?
05:00I guess I need to know more of the...
05:02Right.
05:02I mean, I think if it's a road that is safe for vehicles, then...
05:08Yeah, you can be on an e-bike.
05:09You guys hate what I say.
05:10Well, let's say...
05:11Like, pick a metro park, like Stony Creek, right?
05:13They've got this great paved trail for bikers, walkers, rollerbladers.
05:19So the e-bike could then be on the main road that cars drive on.
05:24Correct.
05:24Yeah.
05:24And everyone else would be on the paved path.
05:26I don't think so.
05:27If it's powered by anything other than human power, it should be on the road.
05:32Yeah.
05:34Text coming in, and we'll get phone calls.
05:35248-539-9797.
05:38Just like anything that's fun in society, once enough people start doing it, we run into problems,
05:43and it ruins it for everybody else.
05:46E-bikes are basically motorcycles.
05:48They should be treated as such.
05:50I agree.
05:51It says, they are extremely dangerous.
05:53Kids have no clue what they're doing on them.
05:55It shouldn't be ridden by anyone under 16.
05:58Another says, treat it like a driver's license, which would effectively do the same thing.
06:02It says, only people I've seen misusing them are kids.
06:06I only see kids on them.
06:07I've never actually seen an adult.
06:09On an e-bike?
06:10I know they do.
06:10Oh, I see them all the time.
06:11And just in my area, what I see are children.
06:15Teenagers, I think.
06:18Yeah, and so in terms of the parks and quote-unquote bike paths, I've been walking with the family
06:26before or going for a jog at a park, and all of a sudden, one of the e-bikes just
06:30goes
06:31zipping by you.
06:32Like, they're able to go faster than they should be able to go in environments like that.
06:40And I don't think that they should be allowed.
06:42How about an e-bike safety course?
06:44Just like hunter safety, boater safety, you have to have it or you can't use it.
06:47That's from Tony.
06:49Some type of licensing requirement.
06:51And you brought up yesterday, just in passing, that if you're under 18, you've got to have
06:56a helmet for a motorcycle.
06:57You should have to have a helmet on the e-bike, right?
06:59I would think so, yeah.
07:00I mean, I'm a big fan of personal choice.
07:05But when you're talking about kids, I do think that whether you're on an e-bike, you're on
07:11a scooter, or you're on a regular pedal bike, you should be wearing a helmet.
07:15Because that's what most of this actually stems from, is the safety of this and how
07:19many children, adults are going to the ER because of e-bike, e-scooter-related incidents
07:26where they're not wearing a helmet, they're suffering brain injuries, concussions, things
07:31like that.
07:31They hit something or someone, and now all of a sudden I'm involved because you didn't
07:35wear a helmet and you're 12 years old and you're zipping around on your e-bike.
07:38Right.
07:40248-539-9797.
07:42We'll get texts, we'll get phone calls, we'll get some feedback on this.
07:45In the 8 o'clock hour, got a question for Michigan football, and I want to know, am I being
07:49fair
07:49or unfair?
07:50Plus an update on Terri on Arnold.
07:52They were talking about him on Hard Knocks.
07:54It's 97.1.
Comments