The number of people injured in e-bike crashes in Bend is on the rise, prompting safety warnings from officials and emerging education efforts as the weather warms and cycling increases.
The announcement comes as local and state policymakers respond with a patchwork of new rules and regulations intended to address skyrocketing popularity in e-bikes and other powered mobility devices.
The Bend Police Department, Bend Fire & Rescue, Bend-La Pine Schools, Bend Park and Recreation District, St. Charles Health System and the Old Mill District issued a joint announcement May 21 detailing the uptick in injuries and emphasizing rules around e-bikes. Injuries from e-bike crashes jumped by about one-third between 2024 and 2025, from 63 to 83, according to reports from the hospital. This year, the volume of patients is about 50% higher than last year, according to the announcement.
Data provided by the fire department shows a similar trend. Medics responded to 24 e-bike injuries in 2024 and 32 in 2025. They’ve already responded to 16 this year, including eight in May — more than any other month in the last three years.
“These injuries continue to increase,” said Dr. Jon Roberts, a trauma doctor with St. Charles, in the announcement. “These injuries can be as simple as a broken bone, but they are often much more severe, including internal injuries, spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries and even death.”
The announcement says both children and adults have been injured. It calls on parents to do more to ensure kids are following rules and using legal bikes.
Not only have e-bikes become more popular, but so have high-powered electric motorcycles, which are commonly marketed as e-bikes but can reach speeds up to 40 miles per hour and are not street legal.
“We know e-bikes and electric motorcycles are fun, and we know they’re convenient,” the announcement reads. “But allowing children to ride electric motorcycles that can travel at high speeds is simply dangerous.”
E-bike injuries continue to rise two years after Oregon lawmakers modernized e-bike regulations with House Bill 4103, which grouped e-bikes into three classifications and banned their use for children younger than 16.
Rep. Emerson Levy (D-Bend) championed the bill following the death of 15-year-old Trenton Burger, a Bend teen who died after being struck by a van along U.S. Highway 20.
But the laws have continued to shift. HB 4007, passed this year, lawmakers tweaked the rules to allow 14 and 15-year-olds to ride Class 1 e-bikes, which provide motor assistance when riders are pedaling up to 20 miles per hour. That law goes into effect in 2027.
In a text message on Wednesday, Levy called for more education and responsibility from parents to make sure kids are on appropriate e-bikes and riding safely.
Levy also said she would like to see better enforcement of the rules before making more changes to state e-bike policy.
“Right now we don’t really have any enforcement,” Levy said. “I would like to see fines — or phone calls to parents. I know our police are understaffed and they are making a decision between going to a domestic dispute or an e-bike incident, but kids are getting hurt.”
According to spokesperson Sheila Miller, the Bend Police Department can and does pull over e-bike riders for riding illegally, such as on sidewalks, speeding or going against traffic. But Miller said the state law does not contain a mechanism to cite people for riding underage, so those types of violations usually result in a call to the child’s parents.
Miller said the department has been “as proactive as possible in addressing e-bike and illegal motorcycle riding.” But it’s difficult to know how often police cite e-bike riders for traffic violations, because the department’s data is organized by the type of violation, not by type of vehicle, Miller said.
That said, the department does track citations for “Off-Road Vehicles,” which includes illegal e-motorcycles. Police issued 12 citations last year and have already issued 17 so far this year.
“We will continue to do that proactive work as time allows, and we ask that our community members do their part as well, by making sure they’re riding safely and legally, not riding illegal e-motorcycles, and that parents do not allow their minor children to ride them,” Miller said in an email.
Other agencies have passed rules aimed at getting a handle on e-bikes. The Bend-La Pine Schools district banned the bikes from elementary or middle school campuses, while the Bend Park and Recreation District banned throttle-assist e-bikes from parks. The City of Redmond recently passed an ordinance banning “motorcycles” from City parks, an attempt to control unruly e-motorcycles.
The state law passed this year, HB 4007, aims to provide some clarity for parents about which e-bikes are legal and which ones aren’t. It makes a distinction between e-bikes in one of the three classifications and faster e-motorcycles, while banning stores from selling vehicles that appear to be e-bikes if they don’t fit the state’s definition.
Other new efforts aim to plug what some say is a gaping hole in e-bike education in Central Oregon.
Ryan Howard, a personal injury attorney in Bend who previously worked in Safe Routes to School programs, plans to launch the Oregon E-Bike Academy next month. It’s a six-hour long weekend day class on e-bike riding, including detailed classroom study of local rules and regulations, a parking lot drill session and practice on some of Bend’s bicycle infrastructure.
The class is geared toward all ages, Howard said. As far as he knows, it’s the first e-bike education in Central Oregon that offers physical bike handling practice as part of the course.
“I feel like that is what it can take for someone who is not comfortable on the road to gain that comfort and confidence, by actually doing it in practice,” Howard said.
The e-bike academy is a for-profit company, and the class could cost between $250 and $300, although the rate hasn’t been finalized, Howard said.
Howard said he’s confident people will sign up.
“There are a lot of parents out there that are spending two or three thousand dollars on an e-bike for their 16-year-old,” Howard said. “I think it’s an easy sell to get them to spend a little bit more to make sure that those kids are capable and comfortable.”
In response to the increase in e-bike use, alternative transportation nonprofit Commute Options developed a free online e-bike safety information course for riders two years ago. Executive Director Brian Potwin said more than 700 people in Deschutes County took the course this month.
Potwin attributed the rise in e-bike injuries to an increase in riders overall, along with a lack of adequate safety information.
“The accessibility of this product has increased and the price has gone down,” Potwin told the Source. “On top of that, the information that’s readily available has not kept up with the increase in usage.”
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