Folsom is taking e-bike safety seriously, and that’s a good thing.
The City Council recently discussed proposed rules addressing unsafe e-bike and e-scooter use. The proposal includes stronger penalties for repeat violations, limits on which e-bikes can use trails, a 5 mph speed limit in parks and clearer signage. The council also asked the city to identify places where kids can safely ride and practice tricks without creating a hazard for pedestrians.
Those are thoughtful steps and I appreciate the balance they are trying to strike.
But as we debate what kids should and shouldn’t do on e-bikes, I think we also need to ask the question: Why are so many of our students relying on them to get around in the first place?
For many families, an e-bike isn’t simply a recreational toy. It has become transportation.
Folsom has grown tremendously, and some of our fastest-growing neighborhoods do not yet have schools in their communities. Students may live in a new neighborhood but attend a school miles away. Until planned schools are ready for students, those families still have to figure out how to get their children to and from campus every day.
At the same time, school transportation options have become more limited. Parents who can make the school commute themselves do. Others carpool. Some students walk or bike.
Meanwhile, parking around our high schools is tight. Traffic at arrival and dismissal is challenging at all of the campuses. Increasingly, families have turned to e-bikes as a practical way for older students to get themselves to school, activities, work, and home again. Our streets weren’t necessarily designed for large numbers of young riders traveling alongside cars.
There is another change happening outside of the school system that matters too. Folsom is home to many state workers, and new return-to-office requirements mean more residents commuting downtown several days a week. That puts more cars on our roads during the same morning hours families are trying to get students to school. For state-worker parents, it can also mean less flexibility to handle school drop-off and pick up themselves, creating an even greater need for practical transportation options for students.
With those factors, it’s easy to understand why e-bikes have become so attractive. That doesn’t excuse dangerous behavior. A student doing a wheelie through an intersection is still making an unsafe choice. But issuing a ticket after something dangerous happens is different from preventing the danger in the first place.
This is where the city’s work and the school district’s work should meet. The city can address what happens on our streets and trails, while the district should continue looking closely at how students are getting to and from school where transportation gaps exist, and how those gaps affect student safety.
As our communities grow, I believe the school district needs to look at student transportation as part of its broader safety and facilities planning. We should identify the routes that students actually use to get to school and determine where the greatest risks are. This is an opportunity for the city and school district to work together.
And I believe school transportation deserves to be back in the conversation.
Restoring or expanding bus service would cost money, and I’m not suggesting otherwise. But transportation is also a safety issue. If families have fewer safe, practical ways to get students to school, the transportation burden doesn’t disappear. It simply shows up somewhere else: in traffic congestion, parking shortages, stressed parents and young riders navigating busy streets.
E-bikes are not going away. Neither are the students riding them. So yes, let’s teach the rules. Let’s enforce them. And let’s teach our kids to ride responsibly.
But let’s also make sure they have a safe way to get to school in the first place.
Susan Cunningham, Folsom Parent and Resident
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