Kyle Brazen lives up a hill in one of Scranton’s more elevated areas. His electric mountain bicycle helps him home at the end of the day.
“For me, I just want to take the edge off a little bit at the end of the ride,” he said.
Brazen is part owner and general manager of Cedar Bicycle in the city. He said two types of customers purchase e-bikes at the shop on Pittston Avenue.
"We have people who want to stay active and still get exercise, and that's pretty much what we cater to ... then you have the commuter e-bike person who's looking for a bike to possibly replace their car, which we're seeing a lot of that now,” Brazen said.
Brazen is not only personally familiar with e-bikes, he’s also professionally schooled in the emerging bicycle and scooter technology that’s causing headaches for trail operators and local police alike.
"The problem is etiquette. People are just not being respectful. And this goes for everybody, especially on the trail,” he said.
What are e-bikes and e-scooters?
Both e-bikes and e-scooters are equipped with a battery and a small electric motor to boost riders forward.
Most people stand to ride e-scooters, though some do have seats.
There are three main classes of e-bikes: Class 1 includes a pedal assist up to 20 miles per hour, Brazen said.
Class 2 e-bikes have a pedal assist up to 20 miles per hour with an optional throttle up to 20 miles per hour. For class 3s, the pedal assist is up to 28 miles per hour.
The e-bikes provide assistance up to those speeds, Brazen said.
"You can put more work in and go faster,” he said.
Pennsylvania’s regulations
In Pennsylvania bicycles are considered vehicles. And regardless of whether they’re electrified or not, bikes have to follow traffic laws and signals.
They must stop at stop signs and red lights and follow speed limits.
In Lackawanna County, Blakely Police received many complaints that electric bikes were traveling at high rates of speed past walkers, causing dangerous situations, Police Chief Guy Salerno said.
"We had e-bikes, electric pedacycles, electric motorcycles riding on the roadway, riding on sidewalks, riding on the Lackawanna Valley Heritage Trail, through our park,” Salerno said. “But I was like what are we enforcing? How are we enforcing it? What are they?”
Salerno said that government is sometimes slow to catch up with the latest technology. Officers had to learn how the e-bikes and e-scooters fit into Pennsylvania’s vehicle code.
“It was very hard to know how to enforce the Pennsylvania laws and to actually deal with the situation we were dealing with,” he said.
PennDOT gave the department a fact sheet, which is also shown above.
“It's made it easier now for us to stop them and know what they can, can’t [do], what they are, and gave us the definitions of what these different types of vehicles are,” Salerno said.
He said the state defines e-bikes as having an electric assist that can go up to 20 miles per hour. According to the state, you have to be 16 to ride an e-bike.
"All these kids are going out and buying — 12- 13-year-olds — these electric-assisted bicycles, they're illegal,” he said. “These kids can be cited for that, for riding them not being 16 years of age. So that's one issue,” he said.
PennDot says e-bikes must weigh less than 100 pounds and have operable pedals.
If an e-bike goes up to 25 miles per hour, the state considers it a motorized pedalcycle, Salerno said. Again, riders must be 16 years of age.
"You also have to have a class C driver's license to ride it,” he said.
Class C is the standard, non-commercial license for most drivers.
"Once you get over 25 miles an hour, now you're getting into your electric motorcycles ... they have to be registered, inspected, insured, and you have to have an M class to operate,” he said.
Class M is the license required to operate a motorcycle.
As for helmets, e-bikes generally follow the same rules as bicycles, according to PennDOT. A helmet is only required if you are under 12 years old.
In other words, if you are old enough to ride an e-bike, you are old enough to ride without a helmet, the agency says.
As for motorized pedal cycles, riders must wear a helmet until they are 21.
Education and information
In Clarks Summit, a slide about e-scooter and e-bike safety flashes on a digital billboard on State Street.
Chris Yarns, the borough’s police chief, said their issue is primarily with juveniles riding the electric bikes on busy roads, like Winola Road and Grove Street and at the border of South Abington Twp. and Clarks Summit. He calls that area "Summit Hill." It's where Northern Boulevard turns into State Street; it's a windy, steep road that's often congested.
"They have a tendency to drive through stop signs, and I've even seen them stop at a red light, but go through the light,” he said.
Yarns and the borough’s officers are not trying to take the fun out of e-bikes. They understand that the young kids don’t understand the rules of the road yet, he said.
So they are reaching out to parents through the billboard, social media and on their sewer bills.
Yarns wants parents to step up and teach their kids about the rules.
Both Clarks Summit and Blakely police are slow to write citations. The officers are more concerned with keeping riders and residents safe.
"My goal is to educate more than write tickets,” Yarns said. "It's about making sure that they can continue to thrive in life and play sports and not be injured, and get hurt,” Yarns said.
And informed.
"I do contact my residents through Facebook … just to try to educate our public as to what they are, what you can, can't do. I posted the fact sheet just so parents understand, like, ‘Hey, if you're buying your son or daughter a motorized bicycle that goes 30 miles an hour, that’s not an e-bike,’” he said.
On the trail
On Aug. 1, students in the Pa CareerLink’s Teen Work Experience Program spray painted a speed limit sign on the Heritage Trail in Scranton. It’s to remind cyclists that the speed limit is 19 miles per hour on the entirety of the 30-mile trail.
"Every municipality from Carbondale down through Taylor, has been notifying us of the issues,” said Owen Worozbyt, Director of Operations for the Lackawanna Heritage Valley Authority (LHVA).
The Trolley Trail, another area trail, runs from Clarks Summit to Dalton. It’s marked for non-motorized use only, said Bill Kern, executive director of the Countryside Conservancy, which maintains the trail.
“With the only exceptions being for disability-related access needs," Kern noted. "The conservancy is coordinating with local police to enforce these rules for the safety of all trail users."
Worozbyt said ultimately most of the issues come down to e-bike and e-scooter operators not being courteous. They zoom past other bikers, walkers or runners, he said. They zip from the sidewalk to the street and back and forth.
"Just trying to make sure that people understand, like, even though you are on a bike or a scooter, you're still bound to follow, like, the rules of road," he said. "Just because you're on a scooter, don't think that you can just do whatever you want.”
The features
At Cedar Bike in South Scranton, Brazen sells rows of electric bicycles from reputable companies, like Trek and Marin.
The e-bikes come in different sizes, colors and variations. The average price of an e-bike is around $2,000. They weigh about 80 pounds. Cedar also sells CYC Motor kits to convert standard bicycles to ebikes.
Brazen rides a mountain bike. He also showed off a cruiser from Trek. When the motor is on a front and back headlight turn on. There are blinkers and a small computerized guide on the handle bar that shows what mode the bike is in and how much battery life is left.
The electric motors are either around the pedals or the back tire. Batteries can either detach to charge or can only be removed by bicycle technicians, like at the shop.
Brazen said many people are purchasing e-bikes from online sources.
"The biggest problem with that, that's not regulated. So we're seeing e-bikes coming to the shop with brake issues, flats, all that kind of stuff. Some of these bikes go up to 45 miles an hour,” he said. “We're a business, we're here, we'll fix your flats, we'll fix all the mechanical parts of the bike. But if it's not a brand we're certified in, we won't touch the electrical work.”
Those online e-bikes are so popular and often much heavier that Cedar had to purchase an electric lift to fix them.
For Brazen, electric bicycles are great for the right rider, they’re just misused.
"You have walkers, you have runners, you have cyclists, you have e-bikers. You know, everybody needs to get on the same page with how you're supposed to use the trail. You know, don't run, walk or ride more than two abreast, don't hog the trail, stay to your right, pass to your left, and that's for walkers, as for runners. That's for cyclists, e-bikers. It doesn't matter.”
