Honolulu officials say the number of accidents involving e-bikes has proliferated on Oahu. Since January, the city’s emergency service has reported 180 incidents involving motorized machinery, often driven by minors.

These include a 12-year-old boy who was not wearing a helmet when he crashed his e-bike into a moving car in Ewa in April; a 15-year-old helmeted boy who collided with a car in Kalihi in June; and a 9-year-old boy who was hit by a car while riding an electric bike without a helmet in Wahiawa in July.

All three were transported to area hospitals after suffering serious injuries, city officials said.

Currently, Hawaiian law states that all children under the age of 16 must wear a helmet when riding a bicycle. A person must be at least 15 years old to ride a “low-speed e-bike” registered to an adult household member.

Following public concerns about the dangerous and illegal use of fast e-bikes on Oahu, the city formed a task force to study how to best regulate these controversial machines.

So far, the group – including the city’s Department of Transportation Services and other city and state-level agencies as well as the advocacy group Hawaii Bicycling League – has begun its review of rules relating to helmet use, age restrictions and other legal issues related to e-bikes. , city officials say.

Gathered in non-public “internal” meetings that began earlier this month, the panel is expected to present its initial findings Tuesday to the Honolulu City Council Transportation Committee.

This update comes as Council Members Augie Tulba and Tyler Dos Santos-Tam introduced House Bill 52, which seeks to revise existing municipal laws regarding the use and possession of e-bikes. The measure, drafted in conjunction with the Hawaii Bicycling League, also seeks to include a three-class system based on e-bike top speed and components, which other jurisdictions have adopted across the country.

Bill 52 passed the second of three readings at the October 9 Council meeting. Now, the measure awaits final recommendations from the task force before further legislative action is taken, according to Tulba.

“The city’s e-bike task force uses a collaborative approach to develop thoughtful regulations to ensure the safety of all road users,” he said in a statement. “There is so much confusion in our communities about what is allowed on our roads and the current e-bike regulations are extremely outdated. It’s time to act.

Tulba added that he is “optimistic that we are on the right track to establish rules through Bill 52, which will keep everyone safe while recognizing the benefits of e-bikes and allowing responsible cyclists, adapted to their age, to benefit from it.

Dos Santos-Tam said “e-bikes put children at risk.”

“And that’s enough. How many more children need to be hospitalized before we act? Change starts with this bill,” he said in a statement. “It imposes restrictions where there are none and makes them easier to enforce. We must do it – and we must do it now.

To that end, Dos Santos-Tam said during the Oct. 9 Council meeting that he hopes to see House Bill 52 passed by the end of the year.

“I bet a lot of kids are going to get e-bikes for Christmas,” he said, “so we want to make sure we have rules in place, as soon as possible.”

He said the proposed legislation would help the Honolulu Police Department better enforce e-bike regulations.

“And more importantly, I think it creates expectations in the community about who can ride an e-bike,” Dos Santos-Tam said. “If you’re 12, you shouldn’t be driving in the middle of King Street without a helmet, when you can’t even get a driver’s license to do the same thing in a car or moped. »

An e-bike bill approved at the city level, Council argued, would also play a role in related measures that could emerge from the state Legislature early next year.

Others also addressed the issue at the same meeting.

Donald Sakamoto, a Kaneohe resident, said that as a blind person, he had previously recommended that the city’s e-bike task force involve the National Federation of the Blind or the Hawaiian Association of the Blind to better represent the disabled community on Oahu and give Bill more information. 52.

Another witness, Robert Gould, said “a simple solution” to regulating e-bikes is to classify them the same as mopeds, which in Hawaii require a driver’s license to operate.

“And at least (e-bikes) are quiet and don’t stink,” he said.

According to Dos Santos-Tam, his timeline for finalizing Bill 52 includes Tuesday’s update on e-bikes. He said this meeting will be followed by further recommendations from the task force and the public, which will be presented on November 19.

“And hopefully that will get us to a final product that we can distribute, ideally by the end of the year,” he added.

The Council’s Transportation Committee meeting begins at 2:30 p.m. in the Honolulu Hale Council Chambers, 530 S. King St.