Escalating e-biker confrontations trigger escalating e-bike restrictions in Redondo, Hermosa, Manhattan
by Kevin Cody
On opening night of the BeachLife Music Festival, two Fridays ago, May 3, a second generation Beach Cities business owner, and his girlfriend, a 20-year Beach Cities resident with two firefighter sons, left headliner Sting’s performance early to beat the exit crowd.
As they were walking to their nearby condominium a group of e-bikers sped past them.
One of the e-bikers struck the woman in her back with his hand, knocking her to the ground.
The man chased the e-bikers. They stopped.
Then, in the woman’s words, “They swarmed us like hornets.”
The couple asked that their names not be disclosed.
The incident took place just south of Captain Kidd’s restaurant, on Harbor Drive. The street was closed to traffic because of the festival.
The woman said she swung her boho purse at the e-bikers as they buzzed her. The man said he picked up a No Parking sandwich board to ward them off.
He said he was about to punch one of the e-bikers who had dismounted when “suddenly, two clocked me from both sides, picked me up and threw me to the ground and started punching and kicking me.”
“I jumped on one of them and he threw me into the bushes,” the woman said.
Bridgette Fredriksz and Alison Atkinson, both longtime Beach Cities residents, also left BeachLife early in Sting’s performance. They were walking to their bikes, locked to a tree next to Captain Kidd’s, when they saw what they estimated to be 15 e-bikers.
“They were playing chicken with people, hooting and hollering. I could tell from the energy that something bad was going to go down,” Fredriksz said.
“Then I heard a kid yell, ‘You got the lady.’ Next, I saw a man in a cowboy hat get thrown in the air. Alison told me she was going to get the police,” Fredriksz said.
“I’ve read about the e-bike problems on Nextdoor and didn’t want to be the person who complains, but doesn’t do anything about it,” Atkinson said.
“I went back to the BeachLife exit and found four cops standing over two people sitting on the curb. I said there were kids on e-bikes, and that I’d seen a guy go down. They said they were in the middle of an arrest, and directed me to another cop, a ways off. He got on his walkie talkie and then walked over to the couple.”
Atkinson rejoined her friend, who was with the couple.
Atkinson didn’t know them.
Fredriksz recognized the woman as a friend she had last seen about eight years ago.
“The guy in the cowboy hat was sitting on the curb in front of Captain Kidd’s,” Atkinson said.
“The officer asked the man if he could stand. When he stood, the officer asked what he did to make the kids attack him,” Atkinson said. “I was shocked by the question. They were an older couple. They weren’t drunk. He was very quiet. He kept wiping the blood from his face.”
“Alison and I were scratching our heads. I said ‘I’m sorry officer, but I’m 63 years old. I saw this grown man get thrown in the air and stomped on. You’re questioning us like we did something wrong.’”
She said the officer did not ask for her name nor phone number.
The man who was bleeding said he told the officer he had two drinks at the concert.
“I told the officer those kids assaulted my girlfriend and I went after them.
“I was being honest with him. I may have been over the limit for driving, but I wasn’t drunk,” he said.
“We talked to the parents of the kids, and they agreed not to press charges,” the officer told the man.
The woman said the officer showed her a video of her boyfriend chasing after the e-bikers and told her she also could be arrested for assaulting a minor with her purse, but the parents had agreed not to press charges.
“I didn’t even hit them. I wish I had, but they were going too fast,” the woman said.
The man was cited for public intoxication, cuffed and taken to jail. He was released nine hours later.
“So now, what began as a pleasant evening listening to music is costing me $3,500 for an attorney because I don’t want a drunk in public on my record,” the man said.
Redondo police did not respond to requests for comment on this story in time for publication.
Videos and comments about e-biker misbehavior have become a staple of local social media sites.
A recently posted video shows a half dozen teenage e-bikers, at 9th Street and Beach Drive in Hermosa, pouring beer on the head of a teen, knocking him to the ground and stomping on him. At least one of the e-bikers also appears in photos taken at the Friday night incident in Redondo.
Hermosa Beach Police Chief Paul LeBaron said his department is investigating the Beach Drive assault.
Former Hermosa councilperson Sam Edgerton said he and his girlfriend were walking on the Hermosa Strand in late March about 9 p.m. when a group of e-bikers began riding toward them.
“Two of the riders came at us full speed, yelling obscenities. I ran at them, and they veered away because they knew I’d knock them off their bikes,” said Edgerton, a former outrigger canoe paddler and college rower.
The e-bikers turned around and came at the couple, a second time, then a third time, Edgerton said. After their third approach he called the Hermosa Beach Police.
He met two officers in a patrol car at 22nd and The Strand just as the e-bikers rushed the couple a fourth time.
“I asked them if they’d like to have a conversation. They saw the cops and ran off.
“I asked the cops, why aren’t you going after them? They were apologetic, but told me they are not allowed to go after minors for these kinds of infractions.”
The officers then left to search for the e-bikers, Edgerton said.
Police Chief LeBaron subsequently explained that the department’s pursuit policy generally prohibits high speed pursuits.
Hermosa Valley students leaving school on a typical afternoon. All are wearing helmets, as required by the school district. Photos by Kevin Cody
Complaints about e-bikers began with the end of the pandemic, when large numbers of local middle school and high school students started riding e-bikes to school.
In April 2023, e-bike riders wearing black balaclavas attacked other e-bike riders in the 1900 block of the Hermosa Beach Strand on a Sunday afternoon.
E-bikers in balaclavas on the Hermosa Strand prior to an e-biker brawl on the Strand that was followed by e-bikers brawling in a downtown Manhattan Beach parking lot.
Surveillance camera image
That evening the two groups who had fought on The Strand, fought again in Manhattan Beach, on the upper level of the 12th Street parking garage. One of the e-bikers was taken to the hospital, according to the Manhattan Beach police.
Beach Cities police and city councils have responded to complaints about e-biker harassment and disregard for traffic laws with both educational efforts and increasingly restrictive measures.
MBPD officer Donovan Torres reacts in horror at the sight of a helmet-less watermelon smashed by Mira Costa student Justin Newman during a January 2023 safety clinic at Manhattan Beach Middle School. Photo by Kevin Cody
Manhattan’s educational efforts began in January 2023 with a series of school assemblies presented by Manhattan Beach Police. But problems with e-bikes persisted.
Last October, Manhattan’s City Council enacted an emergency ordinance that banned e-bikes on the Greenbelt, and sidewalks, established a 15 mph speed limit on the beach bike path, and imposed fines ranging from $500 to $1000 for e-bike traffic violations.
The Council had already adopted a zero-tolerance approach to e-bike riders. “The time has passed for just education… It should be citations, not warnings,” Councilmember Joe Franklin, a cyclist, said at an August 2023 meeting.
Redondo Beach Police similarly implemented a plan combining education, and stringent enforcement, beginning in fall 2022. The plan included a safety video, signboards, community engagement, warnings and citations.
“We’re willing to try anything, or at least consider it. We want to hear ideas from the public,” Police Chief Joseph Hoffman told his Council at their December 5, 2023 meeting.
“We cannot enforce our way out of this problem,” the chief said.
“We need parents to parent their children,” RBPD Lt. Corey King added.
Redondo’s efforts include officers rewarding e-bike riders who wear helmets and stop at stop signs with $5 gift cards.
Hermosa Beach Valley School students must have an e-bike sticker to park their e-bikes on campus. Students must complete a safety class to obtain a sticker. Photo by Kevin Cody
Hermosa Beach Police Chief Paul LeBaron describes his city’s e-bike response as “the three E’s — education, engineering, and enforcement.”
HBPD helped the school district conduct e-bike safety clinics. Hermosa Valley School students who attended the clinics were issued e-bike stickers. Without the stickers, students may not park their e-bikes on campus. Students must also have helmets to park on campus.
The engineering element included installation of barricades on The Strand to encourage cyclists to dismount in the no-riding zone.
Enforcement includes impounding bikes. In February, the Hermosa City Council authorized the police to impound e-bikes (and pedal bikes) of riders who violate traffic laws. The council also required e-bike and pedal bike riders under 18 to wear helmets. (State law requires helmets for riders under 16.)
On Monday, May 13, the HBPD Instagram account showed photos of five e-bikes it had impounded in the past month.
One of the five was impounded last Saturday, April 11. Hermosa Beach resident John Bauer was driving home shortly after 10 p.m. that night when he saw police officers gathered on the Greenbelt, at Second Street and Valley Drive. He parked his car and began videoing with his cell camera.
His video shows the police with a 16-year-old sitting on the ground next to his e-bike. The teen’s father is shown videoing each of the six officers as he asks them to state their names and badge numbers, which they provided.
“That’s a $4,000 e-bike,” the father complains to the police.
Bauer said the father then yelled at him ,“Look at this waste of resources. Post this on Nextdoor.”
Bauer did. His Nextdoor video post ends with a Hermosa Beach officer handing the 16-year-old a citation for driving a motorcycle without a license, and then rolling the e-bike over to a tow truck.
The video elicited over 100 comments, 99% praising the police.
The father also posted on Nextdoor his video of the officers stating their names and badge numbers.
A Nextdoor comment thanked the father for getting the officers’ names because the commenter wanted to send the officers a thank-you.
Chief LeBaron said the Saturday night impoundment resulted from three calls in rapid succession about e-bike riders creating a disturbance in south Hermosa.
When the police arrived, the e-bikers fled. Police were impounding an e-bike that had been left behind when its 16-year-old owner, accompanied by his father, returned to recover it, and received the citation instead.
Hermosa Beach Police Chief Paul LeBaron rides an e-bike during the 2022 St. Patrick’s Parade. Easy Reader file photo
Chief LeBaron acknowledged that harassment by e-bike riders is a growing problem.
“I’ve experienced it myself,” he said.
But he cautioned against attributing the bad behavior to e-bikes. The City of Hermosa has generally encouraged e-bikes as an alternative to cars because they reduce auto traffic and pollution.
“The problem isn’t e-bikes. It’s lack of respect,” he said. ER