San Diego Starts Writing E-Bike Citations After 60-Day Grace Period Ends, 10News Reports

San Diego police can now write tickets when young riders break the city’s e-bike age rules. A 60-day grace period ended, and citations under the city’s e-bike safety ordinance began Tuesday, October 13, 2026, 10News (KGTV) reported. The city sets a minimum age of 12 to ride Class 1 and Class 2 e-bikes, with a $25 fine for violations.

The ordinance took effect in August 2026 after the City Council approved the rules earlier in the year. City materials list the effective date as August 13, 2026, with the grace period running through October 12, 2026. NBC 7 San Diego reported in August that citations could begin around October 12 after the education period.

What the city rule does

Age floor for Class 1 and 2. Under the city's ordinance, children under 12 may not ride Class 1, 2 or 3 e-bikes on San Diego bike paths, roadways, trails, parks or boardwalks; only traditional pedal bikes are authorized for them, according to the city.

Class 3 stays at 16. California already sets 16 as the minimum age for Class 3 e-bikes; the city’s materials restate that Class 3 riders must be 16 or older.

$25 fine, education alternative. Campillo told 10News the $25 amount was set by state law. 10News reported that in some cases cited riders can complete a free, state-approved Online Electric Bicycle Safety & Training Course instead of paying; the city says the course must be completed within 120 days (S.D.M.C. 84.20).

Pilot framing. Councilmember Raul Campillo, who helped advance the ordinance, called it a “pilot program” and “a first of its kind,” and said it will help the city collect data on citations and crashes to evaluate whether the rules improve safety, 10News reported. He said the $25 was “what the state law allows us to actually charge,” “partly because we don’t want to be incredibly punitive towards families.”

Why city leaders say they acted

Campillo pointed to injury data from Rady Children’s Hospital, which reported a 1,770% increase in e-bike injuries in San Diego County since 2022, with many injured riders ages 13–14, according to 10News. Dr. Romeo Ignacio, trauma medical director at Rady Children’s, said in August that the hospital saw only about three bike trauma injuries in 2021 and over 260 the past year, and that e-bike injuries were then the hospital’s second-leading reason for trauma activations.

An August NBC 7 report on the education launch also cited a report by UC San Diego health researchers: e-bike injuries rose from two in 2018 to 1,506 in 2024, and county hospitals recorded 865 emergency-department visits and 186 hospitalizations related to e-bike accidents in 2024. These figures describe injuries before the ordinance took effect; they do not show whether the age rule reduces injuries, which Campillo said the pilot is meant to evaluate.

Pushback

The San Diego County Bike Coalition opposes the ordinance, arguing that the riding that worries families, such as running red lights, blowing through stop signs and weaving through crowded sidewalks, is already illegal, and that many of the scariest incidents involve high-speed electric motorcycles, which the coalition says state law does not classify as e-bikes. The coalition said it has not seen data on how many children under 12 are hurt on legal Class 1 and Class 2 e-bikes and asked the city to track and publish citation and crash data and revisit the ordinance if it is not making streets safer, 10News reported.

Where it stands

Citations are live as of October 13 under the city’s published timeline. This is news coverage of a city ordinance, not statewide California Vehicle Code changes, and it is not legal advice. Riders and parents should check sandiego.gov/police/bike-safety for the city’s current age, helmet and course links.

The e-bike pros' take

Know the class label. Class 1/2 vs Class 3 changes the age floor in San Diego and under state law.

Helmets still matter. California requires helmets for riders under 18 on Class 1/2 and for all ages on Class 3; city materials restate those rules.

Education over a ticket. If cited, the free online course within 120 days is the city’s built-in off-ramp from the $25 fine.

Need a helmet? See e-bike–rated helmet picks on ElectricBikes.com

More e-bike law news: Albany County, N.Y., Passes E-Bike Helmet Law for All Riders, Spectrum Reports · North Carolina Adopts Three-Class E-Bike System Effective Dec. 1 · Ohio Bill Would Bar Riders Under 14 From E-Bikes, Require Helmets and $25 Registration

Photo: San Diego DecoBike bike-share rack, by Rosiestep via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0); cropped, headline added in the featured image. Illustrative San Diego bike infrastructure; not a product endorsement.