Gone are the wild west days of e-bikes running free on State Street. According to Santa Barbara Police Chief Kelly Gordon, in the past three months, 172 administrative citations have been issued to errant e-bike riders for violating street safety rules. Gordon noted that her officers have hosted three e-bike safety programs in local schools and that the efforts are paying off. “We’ve seen a change of behavior as a result,” she told members of the Fire and Police Commission two weeks ago. Bicycle helmets, she noted, are now actually getting strapped on. Although e-bikes have accounted for precious few actual collisions, they’ve emerged as one of the highest profile irritants and menaces cited by members of the general public as to why they avoid downtown. In the past, the police lacked the staffing necessary to enforce e-bikes activity and few officers relished the optics of a uniformed officer chasing after teenage offenders in a public thoroughfare. In recent months, Gordon and the department have filled many of the vacant positions. Three years ago, Gordon told the commissioners, the department had a 25 percent vacancy rate. Today, she said the number is 10 percent. As a result, she said, the department is now meeting and exceeding its response time targets for top two highest-priority designations. In both categories, she said, her officers are arriving a couple of minutes sooner than their target times. Looking at the year to date, Gordion said crimes against persons are down 4 percent; crimes against property are down by 13 percent. But DUIs, she said, are up 51 percent. In the past three months, she said, two complaints had been filed by members of the public against officers. In the prior three-month period, she said, the number was five. The disposition of those cases was not discussed, but Gordon noted that the complaints tended to focus on alleged discourteous behavior, discriminatory conduct, or failure to take reasonable action.
https://www.independent.com/2025/11/19/city-of-santa-barbara-putting-the-brakes-on-e-bikes/
City of Santa Barbara Putting the Brakes on E-Bikes
