BOUNTIFUL—There has been a growing problem with e-motorcycles and e-bikes riding where they’re not allowed and causing damage to areas in Bountiful. 

“Late spring is when we started to see more problems with e-bikes and e-motorcycles, probably more with e-motorcycles than anything else,” said Bountiful Police Chief Ed Biehler. “Ultimately, the problems come down to both e-bikes and e-motorcycles doing damage to public areas like parks and stuff like that. Whether that’s just riding in the grass and damaging the grass or the Parks Department recently sent us some pictures where, whoever it was, looks like they took shovels and dug holes in the park to make dirt jumps for the e-motorcycle type items.”

So there’s that, he said. “Also, though, most of the e-motorcycles, if not all of the ones that we’re seeing are not street legal and are being driven oftentimes by kids who are not licensed drivers even. So that obviously creates a safety risk and safety problem.”

E-motorcycles look like a regular motorcycle, they’re just electric and a little smaller, said Biehler. “A popular brand name is called Sur-ron. They’re a dirt bike style motorcycle not a street bike. It’s all electric so they go fast. They’re 750 watts or more.”

They’re much different than an e-bike, he said. “As a general rule class 1, 2 and 3 depending on what class you have are supposed to be governed at 28 miles an hour as a top speed. Where a motorcycle will go much faster than that.”

Biehler said they’re seeing similar problems with e-bikes as e-motorcycles. “Damage to parks, that sort of thing. It’s definitely less but there are certain rules and regulations depending upon the class of bike you have.”

 As a general rule, the problem’s not as much with e-bikes as e-motorcycles, he said. “I’d probably say for e-bikes it would be like riding in parks and those public spaces and then maybe even more so on the trail system that Bountiful has been working on for several years. There are some trails that are not for bikes, only for hiking.”

The City Council discussed the problem at the Oct. 14 work session, said Biehler. “That was to give them information about it so we’ve obviously been dealing with it throughout the summer-ish.”

Several council members had received some phone calls and seen or had some experiences themselves with various things and so the meeting was really more educational, he said. “There were no proposals or actions taken. I believe from the meeting we’re going to wait and see what happens legislatively this next legislative session. We anticipate that there are going to be some more rules and regulations potentially proposed and passed with legislation.”

Biehler said with the damage to parks and things like that they already have the ability to enforce that. “It’s harder when there’s not a local ordinance that says ‘you can’t ride a bike in the park’ and that’s going to be a difficult decision for the council to make anyway because it’s not just e-bikes you would be eliminating. Technically it could be an 8-year-old riding his pedal bike with his family in the park.”

Some of the council’s comments were that they might not have to wait for legislation because they have the ability to regulate what happens in their own public parks, he said. “There were not necessarily recommendations or proposals made.”

Biehler said they’ve done some social media along with many other cities, if not, almost all cities who are dealing with this. “This isn’t new or unique to Bountiful. Kaysville’s done some good posts. Draper has done some posts. It doesn’t necessarily feel like it’s making a difference but we’ve tried to put information out.”

Depending on what’s happening a person could technically be charged with criminal mischief, he said. “That would be damaging to property but we do have rules about what you can and can’t do inside of a park like disrupting other patrons.” 

Riding a Sur-ron is not street legal so that would be a whole separate charge, said Biehler. “So whether you’re an adult or a youth, you could be issued a citation as if you were driving any other vehicle that does not have registration or that’s not street legal and technically it could be impounded.”

Up to now Biehler said they’ve really tried to be understanding that people want different methods of transportation. “So we’ve tried to do a lot of education. If we stop somebody that’s riding any motorcycle we have not been impounding it as a vehicle. It’s more education and letting them know that it’s not street legal. They can’t do it. That sort of thing.”

It’s been frustrating, he said. “I know it’s hard for our Parks Department to have damage done to their parks and other patrons who are going to the park to enjoy it and then to have motorcycles or e-bikes building jumps or causing other types of damage.”