The hazards of e-riding: Parks, schools and police team up to warn parents and students ahead of summer break

With the final school bells about to sound for summer break, the Spokane Police Department, Spokane Public Schools and city parks department teamed up to warn families about the dangers of electric bikes, motorized scooters and other "e-ride" devices.

Ryan Lancaster, Spokane Public Schools spokesman, said the school district usually reaches out to parents before the beginning of summer to issue some safety reminders. This year, they sent out a guide that contains numerous rules and reminders for e-ride vehicles. The biggest safety issue he hears consistently from parents, teachers and students is the vehicles' speed.

Adam Oakley, principal at Garry Middle School, said he's never seen a collision on school grounds but has witnessed plenty of near misses.

Garry is the smallest middle school in the district, and yet, Oakley, said he has to talk with at least one student per week about being more cautious of their surroundings.

"I want our kids to be outside," Oakley said. "Summer should be a time where they get to hang out with their friends, they're out and about, and I want that more than anything. I just want them to be safe, and you know, make it home every day."

Last Thursday, a new Washington state law went into effect that clarifies the difference between e-bikes and electric motorcycles to provide a clear means of regulating each type of vehicle.

"I think the biggest confusion that I see are people are confusing an e-bicycle with what is actually a motorcycle," Spokane police Capt. Nate Spiering said.

Under this new law, an e-bike must have two or three wheels, a cycle seat, fully working pedals and an electric motor with a "power output of no more than 750 watts."

"When I look at the e-motorcycles, and I look at the size of the motors on those," Spiering said, "some of the smallest ones I find are 5.1 kilowatts, which is massively more powerful than any bicycle."

The new law also states that an "electric-assisted bicycle" does not include any vehicle capable of exceeding 20 mph solely with its electric motor and no pedal assistance.

With the implementation of the law, a work group is being formed that will look at and recommend a "revised statutory framework" for e-motorcycles.

For Oakley, it couldn't come at a better time. While the law itself won't necessarily have an immediate effect on the students, the timing of it does.

"The message from me to parents is these aren't toys," Oakley said. "Whether they're going to be classified as an e-motorcycle or they're classified as an e-bike, they're not toys, they're transportation devices."

He said he tells students: "Just because you've got the skill to handle the speed doesn't mean you've got the maturity to handle the speed."

Tricia Leming, a spokesperson for the Spokane Police Department, said some kids who own e-bikes or e-scooters might not necessarily know traffic laws because they don't have a driver's license. Regardless, she still wants them to be cognizant of basic laws and considerate of neighbors and pedestrians, such as slowing down in highly congested areas like Riverfront Park.

She said that people should ride in the designated bike lanes when applicable. But if it's just around the block of their neighborhood, then the sidewalk is fine.

At the end of the day, the school district, police department and parks department want young people to understand where they're allowed to ride, when to yield to pedestrians and vehicles, why helmets matter, and how speed affects safety.

Leming said the police department does not keep track of e-vehicle accidents because they don't have an effective way of filtering out e-ride device wrecks from other traffic collisions. Justin de Ruyter, spokesperson for the Spokane Fire Department, said they don't track e-vehicle collisions for the same reason.

John Griffin, a Target Zero manager for Eastern Washington, said the biggest way to limit the risk of injury on an e-vehicle is simply to put on a helmet. Target Zero is Washington State's strategic highway safety plan with the goal of eliminating all traffic fatalities and serious injuries by 2030.

Griffin cited ConsumerShield, an online platform that provides important legal information, when he said e-bike accidents nationally have surged from 3,500 in 2017 to 34,000 in 2023. Similarly, e-scooter accidents rose from 7,700 in 2017 to 40,400 in 2023.

The Spokane City Council in 2022 repealed its law requiring adults to wear helmets while bicycling.

Under Spokane Municipal Code, people 18 years old and older do not need to legally wear a helmet if they're renting a transportation device, like a Lime scooter.

"What they've effectively done is neuter the bicycle helmet law," Griffin said.

Griffin argues that this has put law enforcement in a position where they're unlikely to write a ticket for someone that's not wearing a helmet, whether that person owns their e-ride device or are simply renting it.

For Griffin, Leming, Spiering and Lancaster, the biggest, most repeated issue revolves around kids going too fast.

Spiering, who was a traffic cop for about six and a half years, said one of the reasons that they worked school zones so frequently had to do with the difference between a 20 mph impact and a 30 mph impact.

"The mortality rate jumps almost 90% just in that 10 miles an hour," Spiering said.

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This story was originally published June 15, 2026 at 8:14 AM.