Why E-Bike Riders Should Learn Basic Biking Rules

Since the beginning of the school’s history of being open, there have always been students who go and leave school through various methods other than motor vehicles. Students have always walked and biked to and from school. Although there has never been any major issues with students biking, there has been an increasing issue for students walking home or walking to school this year. 

This year there has been a massive increase in the usage of electrical bikes or e-bikes. In simple terms, they are bikes with a motor attached to them. With this motor, the bike is able to reach speeds up to 50 or even 60 miles per hour. Although there is no issue with the max speeds of the bikes on school campus, the majority of bike users have started to become a problem for students. The two main routes students take is the dirt trail behind the school, and the paved route behind the school. These trails are not the biggest and are filled with students attempting to leave once school ends. With this in mind, students who use bikes have begun to disregard the safety and attempt to pass by students without slowing down or warning students they are coming.

As a student who walks home, in just the past month there have been at least 10 instances where a student with an e bike and a student walking home almost collided. These instances have been close calls and overall annoy students walking home as they have to be alert to watch out for any incoming danger.

Sacchi Shaw (12) commented how “it’s very annoying to be on such high alert because one wrong step, and a kid can run you over instantly”.

Agreeing with Sacchi, another senior Eva Jabbari (12) further commented how “they pass by so fast with no regard to you, there’s been a few times where if i had stepped to the left one more step, i would have gotten hit.” 

The school has instilled a new policy to students with bikes and e-bikes. Students must walk off of the campus with their bikes and be on a trail or away from cars in the student pick up lot. Once they do this they can now use their bikes. This policy has recently been added due to a few close calls of students and cars. This new policy is nice, but warnings and statements must be released to kids with e-bikes. These kids must learn that they are dangerous going at such high speeds on trails, and if they do not want to go slower, at least warn other students with yells or a bell that they are coming.