I was on a mixed-use trail and saw a kid who looked around 10 years old on what looked like a motorcycle. It was silent and had pedals, so I’m guessing it was an e-bike. He was going pretty fast. He seemed young for an e-bike. Is there a minimum age for riding them? Does it matter if they look like motorbikes? – Linda, St. Albert, Alta.
In Alberta, kids can legally ride e-bikes starting at age 12 – but that might be too young to ride them safely, experts said.
“I would say 12 is young to be driving something that can go that fast,” said Robyn Robertson, chief executive officer of the Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF). “Young kids want to go fast and parents may not be paying attention.”
In Alberta, anyone 12 and older can ride an e-bike without a licence, registration or insurance as long as the bike’s motor is 500 watts or less and can’t go faster than 32 kilometres an hour, according to Alberta’s transportation ministry. If it’s faster than that – up to 70 kilometres an hour – it’s classified as a moped, even when it has pedals. To legally ride it, you must be 14 or older and have at least a learner’s permit.
On both e-bikes and mopeds, you must wear a motorcycle helmet – and if you’re under 16, you can’t carry passengers. Because the categories are determined by speed and motor size, it’s tough to tell whether a bike fits the legal requirements by looking at it.
There are e-bikes that look like motorcycles or Vespa-style mopeds – and as long as they have a top speed of 32 kilometres an hour or less, they’re legal for 12-year-olds to ride in Alberta.
Electric youth?
The rules vary by province and they can get confusing. Most define e-bikes as having a top motor-assisted speed of 32 kilometres an hour – you can often go faster than that if you’re going downhill – and a maximum 500-watt motor.
The minimum ages vary. For instance, it’s 14 in Saskatchewan, 16 in Ontario and British Columbia, and 18 in Quebec.
But Quebec allows 14-17-year-old riders on e-bikes if they have a moped licence.
Some e-bikes only provide electric assistance when you’re pedalling – that’s called pedal assist.
But others have a handlebar-mounted throttle, like on a motorcycle or scooter, so the bike will go even if you’re not pedalling at all.
In B.C., there’s a special category for a light e-bike, which doesn’t have a throttle and has a top motor-assisted speed of 25 kilometres an hour. The minimum age to ride one is 14.
So what should the minimum age be for standard e-bikes?
“I think at this stage of the game, 16 is probably a good place to draw the line,” said Dr. Daniel Rosenfield, a paediatric emergency doctor and chair of the Canadian Paediatric Society’s injury prevention committee. “Maybe there will be e-bikes sized for kids that [have less power assist] and maybe have a top speed of 15 kilometres an hour.”
There’s little Canadian data on e-bike injuries among kids and teens, partially because records may show a bike injury but not specify that it was an e-bike, Rosenfield said.
“But if you are going faster, you are more likely to get injured,” he said. “And the faster you go, the more severe that injury will be.”
Buyer beware?
But there are stores and websites selling bikes that are too fast to be considered e-bikes in any province, said Michael Pasquali, founder of the Canadian Electric Bicycle Association.
“You have stores selling them knowing they’re not technically electric bikes and they’re saying, ‘Yeah, these are e-bikes. Don’t worry,’” said Pasquali, who owns an e-bike store in Hamilton, Ont.
We reached out to one U.S.-based company that ships motocross-style bikes to Canada. On its website, it shows “e-bikes” with up-to-3,000-watt motors and advertised top motor-assisted speeds of more than 70 kilometres an hour – even though bikes that fast don’t count as e-bikes in any province.
In an email, a customer-service representative said kids 12 and older could ride those bikes in Canada, but added customers should “check with the local restrictions.”
Transport Canada said it’s up to the provinces to regulate how e-bikes are sold and used.
“Prior to purchasing an e-bike, [we encourage] consumers to become familiar with the rules and regulations that apply within their province or territory,” Sau Sau Liu, a Transport Canada spokeswoman, said in an email. “You may also reach out to the Competition Bureau about misleading advertising.”
With so many bikes for sale that don’t meet provincial requirements for e-bikes, it’s really “the wild west,” Robertson said.
“It’s a problem for provinces to regulate. It’s a problem for consumers who are buying them and it’s a problem for law enforcement,” she said. “They can’t [pull over and test] every bike.”
Also, many e-bikes that fit the speed requirements when they’re sold can be easily modified to go faster – there are how-to videos on YouTube, Robertson said.
Goodbye, moto?
Ontario has proposed new e-bike rules that would require riders of e-bikes that look like motorcycles or mopeds to have licences, insurance and registration – even if the bike’s top speed is 32 kilometres an hour or less.
We asked Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation why slower motorcycle- and moped-style bikes are included in the licensing proposal and didn’t receive a direct answer.
Pasquali questioned whether Ontario’s proposal would actually solve the problem – e-bikes that are too fast to meet regulations – arguing that companies might simply make illegally fast bikes that look more like regular bicycles.
“There’s [still] zero oversight over how they’re imported, zero oversight at the point of sale, zero oversight when they hit the road,” Pasquali said. “So what will this solve?”
Have a driving question? Send it to globedrive@globeandmail.com and put ‘Driving Concerns’ in your subject line. E-mails without the correct subject line may not be answered. Canada’s a big place, so let us know where you are so we can find the answer for your city and province.
Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to state that the acronym for TIRF stands for Traffic Injury Research Foundation.