If your 11-year-old rides an e-bike to school in San Diego, the warnings are over. The city’s 60-day grace period ran through October 12, and police can write tickets starting Tuesday, October 13.
The ordinance, O-2026-142, took effect August 13, 2026. Its core rule is simple: children under 12 may ride only traditional pedal bikes. No Class 1, 2 or 3 e-bikes on city bike paths, roadways, trails, parks or boardwalks. Enforcement started this week, as 10News reported.
Parents or guardians share liability for citations issued to minors. School district police are also watching the routes kids take to class.
What a ticket costs and how to clear it
The fine is $25. City Councilmember Raul Campillo, who pushed the ordinance, called it a “pilot program” and said $25 is the most state law lets the city charge. He said the low figure is partly meant to avoid hammering families.
The ticket doesn’t have to be paid. Under S.D.M.C. 84.20, a cited rider can finish a free, state-approved online Electric Bicycle Safety & Training Course within 120 days instead. The city’s e-bike page says you must complete every module and send in the certificate the way the citation instructs. Skip it, and the fine is due.
SDPD Commander Ben Kelso has framed the effort as safety and education rather than ticket-writing. Expect the course to be the default outcome for a first stop.
The rules, class by class
The under-12 ban sits on top of California’s class system. Here is how the city lays it out.
| Type | Assist | Top speed | Minimum age | Helmet |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pedal bike | None | Speed limit | None | Under 18 |
| Class 1 | Pedal assist | 20 mph | 12 | Under 18 |
| Class 2 | Pedal and throttle | 20 mph | 12 | Under 18 |
| Class 3 | Pedal assist | 28 mph | 16 | All ages |
A few more rules matter on the street:
- No riding on sidewalks. Ride with traffic and use bike lanes when they exist.
- Passengers are allowed only on a bike built for them, with a permanent second seat.
- E-bikes need no license, registration or insurance.
- Riders follow the same traffic laws as drivers, including stop signs and signals.
- Changing a bike to go faster without updating its class label is illegal.
Readers keep asking whether an e-bike can hit 70 mph. Not under these rules. Class 3 tops out at 28 mph. Fast electric bikes such as Surron models, which can reach 45 mph, are classed as motorcycles. The city says e-motorcycles are not authorized to be ridden anywhere inside city limits. If you want the class definitions in more detail, our Oregon class and helmet breakdown uses the same three-class model, and we covered where Washington draws the e-bike line for bikes that lean toward motorcycles. Questions about whether an e-bike needs a license have a state-by-state answer too.
The rest of the county plays by different rules
San Diego isn’t alone. Carlsbad, Chula Vista, Coronado, La Mesa, Poway, San Marcos and Santee have passed their own under-12 bans. Their details differ from the city’s. Some add 30-day impoundment, sidewalk bans or park bans.
Coronado is the strictest example I’ve seen. Its rules ban e-bikes on all sidewalks, beaches and parks, plus the Paseo boardwalk near the Hotel Del and the Coronado Shores Boardwalk. A ride that is legal in one city can be a violation a few miles away. It’s the same patchwork problem we saw in Missouri’s city-by-city limits, and it’s spreading across suburbs rewriting e-bike rules as teen ridership grows.
My read
I understand why San Diego acted. Rady Children’s Hospital went from about three e-bike trauma cases in 2021 to 262 in 2025. The hospital now ranks e-bike injuries as its second-leading reason for trauma activations. Those numbers are hard to wave away.
But the ordinance targets one slice of the problem. The San Diego County Bicycle Coalition opposes it. Their argument: nobody has shown how many children under 12 get hurt on legal Class 1 and 2 bikes, and many of the scariest crashes involve electric motorcycles that state law doesn’t treat as e-bikes. They also point out that in a city of hills and canyons, an e-bike may be the only way a kid reaches school on their own. That’s a fair worry, and parents who stop letting kids ride may drive them instead.
The $25 fine is small, so the practical pressure is parent liability and the hassle of a course. If I lived in the city, I’d do four things:
- Check the class label on any bike a child rides. If the child is under 12, it’s a pedal bike for now.
- Make sure helmets fit and the chin strap is snug, for every rider under 18 and any Class 3 rider of any age.
- If a ticket arrives, start the course right away. Keep the certificate and a copy of the citation. The 120-day window is generous, but it’s easy to lose track.
- Before riding across a city line, look up the neighbor’s rules. Don’t assume San Diego’s apply.
Still unknown
Campillo says the pilot will collect data on citations and crashes to judge whether safety improves. The coalition wants that data published, and wants the city to revisit the ordinance if it doesn’t work. Neither has a date yet. We also don’t know how many tickets police will write, or whether the course will become the usual outcome. I’ll update this story when the city shares numbers.
Photo: 20231005 Cycling Road Men's Road Race at Hangzhou Asian Games 1 by Simon Wade, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped.
