Santa Barbara Grand Jury Comes Down on E-Bikes

City Cops Need to Start Enforcing E-Bike Traffic Rules Like They Mean It, Report Concludes

Given the surging popularity of e-bikes, the City of Santa Barbara needs to increase its enforcement, education, and information efforts, a recent Grand Jury report concluded. | Credit: Ryan P. Cruz

In recent years, youthful e-bike riders — prone to show-offy acrobatics and scary high-speed exuberance — have emerged as one of Santa Barbarans’ most frequently complained-about scourges of modern civilization. In less histrionic language, the Santa Barbara Grand Jury just weighed in, stating in flat but insistent tones that city cops need to start enforcing e-bike traffic rules like they mean it.

At issue is the safety of the riders and those they might hit. With e-bikes hitting speeds of 28 miles per hour — and e-bike-adjacent crotch rockets even faster — the report concluded, serious damage can and does occur. Cottage Hospital reported 84 e-bike accident patients in the two years between October 2022 and 2024. Of those, 40 involved patients between the ages of 11 and 20. Another 18 were 51 and older. Of these, 24 patients suffered orthopedic injuries and 19 suffered serious head and neck trauma. In a three-year stretch — 2022 to 2024 — the Santa Barbara Police Department clocked 163 e-bike-involved collisions, with the e-bike rider being at fault in the majority of cases.

A roadside memorial was erected on State Street where an e-bike rider was struck and killed by an alleged drunk driver in May. | Credit: Courtesy

Those numbers do not include the first e-bike fatality, which occurred this May when an allegedly intoxicated driver with a history of drunk driving offenses plowed into an e-bike rider who was just getting off work near State and Mission streets.

Police have been reluctant to enforce e-bike rules not just because the rules themselves are less than precise but because the department has been significantly understaffed. For all the obvious reasons, cops don’t want to chase after e-bike daredevils: It’s risky, it looks bad, and they don’t want the youthful drivers’ first experience with law enforcement to be a citation. In 2024, the city passed an e-bike ordinance, but the enforcement, the grand jury found, has been spotty and the consequences — a couple hours of mandatory instruction rather than the confiscation of the e-bike — not much of a deterrent. Given the surging popularity of e-bikes — in Santa Barbara, they make up half the bikes on the road — the Grand Jury declared, enforcement, education, and information efforts need to increase. Acknowledging this will all cost more money, the report urged City Hall to find that money and spend it accordingly.