Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) The popularity of e-bikes is prompting another community in Western New York to consider regulations to give police more options when dealing with those who misuse the bikes.
"The main issue is the bikes traveling at a high rate of speed on our bike trails,
and not being courteous to other people who are walking the trails," said Patrick Casilio, Clarence Town Supervisor, on WBEN Monday.
Just last week, lawmakers in the village of East Aurora proposed harsher penalties for parents of underage kids caught riding e-bikes.
"Many of the operators of these bikes are underage and some of them are electric dirt bikes, which is a bigger problem. The law is going to classify both e-bikes and dirt bikes to try to correct the problem," he added.
A public hearing has been scheduled for August 13 at 10:15am at Clarence Town Hall to consider a local law on electric bikes.
Casilio said the main purpose of a local law is to give law enforcement the ability to impound the bike. Law enforcement is supposed to call parents of underage operators to pick up the bike because they don't want to release them and have them back on the road.
"We had law enforcement clocking an e-bike going 53 mph on our bike trail," said Casilio. They can be easily modified by upping the voltage or disconnecting the governor control and they can become very fast machines. We're just trying to update our current laws to cover these new vehicles."
In addition to allowing police to impound the bikes, Casilio also wants a 20 mph speed limit for all bikes on the bike path as well as a helmet law.