The median age of injured conventional bicycle riders was 30 (IQR, 13-53) years vs 39 (IQR, 25-55) years for e-bicyclists (P < .001). Scooter riders had a median age of 11 (IQR, 7-24) years at the time of injury vs 30 (IQR, 20-45) years for e-scooter riders (P < .001) (Table 1 and Figure 3). As a group, those injured from EV accidents were significantly older than those injured from conventional vehicles (age, 31 vs 27 years; P < .001) (eTable 1 in Supplement 1).
e-Bicycles have lowered barriers to cycling for older adults, a group at risk for physical inactivity.9,10 Biking has clear-cut physical and cognitive health benefits for older adults, so this extension of biking accessibility to older e-bicyclists should be considered a boon of the new technology.22,23 However, as injured e-bicycle riders are older than conventional bicyclists, the unique safety considerations for older cyclists should be a focus of ongoing study.
There is a popular conception that ebikes are ridden recklessly on streets and sidewalks by youths, doing dangerous stunts, riding against traffic, not wearing helmets, and incurring serious injury to themselves and others as a result. This conception is often used to justify legislation to restrict or ban ebike use by minors. However, the data suggests quite the opposite, as it is older riders which are racking up injuries.
The data does not support restrictions on ebikes, but rather their wholesale adoption, especially for audiences which are at risk of inactivity or disadvantaged by a lack of transportation options. Ebikes are not at odds with conventional bicycles.
The California Bicycle Coalition offers this succinct summary:
“We think this backlash against e-bikes is the wrong direction for what we want for safer ways for people biking and sharing the road,” said Jared Sanchez, the policy director for the California Bicycle Coalition. “We don’t believe that adding restrictions for people riding e-bikes is the solution.”
They also have a page on how to fight against “bikelash”, aka naysayers of bicycles and bikes: https://www.calbike.org/talking-back-to-bikelash/
This study appears to only discuss injuries to riders, not to pedestrians.
This is correct, although it may be for good reason: data for non-rider ebike injuries and deaths is not collected through the existing means, which focus mostly on motor vehicle collisions. The NHTSA’s 2022 data report has this note:
Essentially, the national data sources available today don’t record bicycle-vs-bicycle or bicycle-vs-pedestrian injuries or fatalities. Some states or municipalities might record that data though. For example: NYC’s 2021 data shows 2 pedestrian deaths from a bicycle collision, and 123 pedestrian deaths from a motor vehicle collision. But no data there on nonfatal pedestrian injuries caused by bicyclists.
A study looking at just a handful of municipalities would not be useful to draw larger conclusions. But seeing as the data collection at the national level was expressly designed to give insight into the most pressing injuries/fatalities category – those involving motor vehicles – I’m not holding by breath for expanded data collection, since bicycle-involves pedestrian collisions are at least an order of magnitude less of a problem than motor vehicle collision.