Orange County E-Bike Safety Planning and Implementation
Orange County, CA
Project Summary
Orange County has seen some of the most rapid adoption of e-bikes in the country, as riders take to the county’s many roadways, trails, paths, and open spaces. E-bikes hold transformative potential to broaden the base of residents using active transportation, and as e-bikes have exploded in popularity, local and regional agencies have worked to update policies and regulations to ensure the safety of e-bike riders and other roadway and trail users. However, these efforts have lacked central coordination and consistency across different jurisdictions, schools, and neighborhoods, resulting in a wide range of rules across the county. To provide a strategic approach to e-bike safety, Toole Design worked with the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) on a regional E-bike Safety Action Plan.
Expertise Applied
Planning for E-bike Safety
To start, our team assessed the e-bike safety efforts already underway locally, regionally, and statewide. We surveyed local jurisdictions, law enforcement, regional agencies, and retailers. We also engaged the public through virtual open houses and a youth-focused e-bike rodeo. A parallel inventory of crash, injury, and ridership data documented missing information.
Building on these findings, we developed the plan around six focus areas, including legislation, infrastructure, collisions and injuries, ridership, education and encouragement, and retailer collaboration. The strategies and actions within each area are designed to:
- Support consistent regulations across jurisdictions
- Strengthen the collection and sharing of e-bike crash and ridership data
- Deliver targeted safety education to the riders most at risk
Moving Toward Implementation
Toole Design is providing ongoing support to OCTA as it advances the plan from recommendations to implementation. This includes supporting an interdisciplinary group of stakeholders from across the county who are focused on translating the plan’s strategies into concrete progress. Current efforts include developing safety education materials, facilitating workshops, reviewing data collection processes, and tracking e-bike legislation across all 34 jurisdictions in the county.
