Okanagan cops can’t keep up with illegal e-bikes— hospitals aren’t trying

E-bikes appear to be popping up everywhere, drawing new safety concerns from residents and drivers, local governments and police. So far, there’s not much data showing real danger but there could be another good reason for that — no one’s counting.

When fleets of e-scooters were released into Okanagan cities, Interior Health kept track of emergency room visits and found a significant uptick in injuries. It was so drastic that one doctor described them as a “fracture factory.”

For the unregistered, high-powered e-bikes, the health authority hasn’t taken any similar steps to track them.

Deputy chief medical health officer Dr. Silvina Mema said she’s aware of safety concerns and she’s seen them in the Kelowna area. Though she couldn’t comment on how often riders are visiting Interior Health emergency departments, she did say they saw more injuries from bicycles, generally, when they began tracking e-scooter injuries.

She suspects that’s still true.

“I don’t have any reason to believe they have decreased. In fact, I have reason to believe they have increased because of what I’m seeing from RCMP,” she said, adding that parents and riders should be informed of what they’re using and whether they’re legal for local roads.

Mema said e-scooter injuries dropped over time, but those visits were being tracked intentionally when the scooters were introduced. That’s not the case with e-bikes, including those that are powered beyond the province’s 500-watt limit.

ICBC, meanwhile, does track collisions involving motorcycles and those between vehicles and cyclists, but unregistered e-bikes aren’t. West Kelowna Fire Department hasn’t been keeping tabs either and, when iNFOnews.ca reached out to the city of Kelowna, we were referred to the RCMP, but the detachment didn’t have records of any reported collisions.

But, Okanagan police detachments have warned the public of fines, officers have seized what they describe as e-dirt bikes, but there haven’t been any reports of collisions between pedestrians, cyclists or drivers and the often-young riders.

From West Kelowna, across the bridge and north to Vernon, police are struggling to crack down on the bikes. Those beyond the legal 500-watt, 32 km/h limit can often reach speeds over 60 km/h with ease.

Kamloops RCMP hasn’t been nearly has proactive about them and it doesn’t appear they’re nearly as common, aside from challenges on mountain bike trails. It could be due to the extensive bike lanes in Okanagan cities compared to Kamloops, especially in Kelowna, which make commuting on two wheels easy.

Aside from one crash in Kamloops in 2024 between a high-powered e-bike and a pickup, there are few if any known notable collisions or injuries across the Thompson-Okanagan.

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If you’re aware of any collisions or injuries involving high speed e-bikes, we want to know about it. Email reporter Levi Landry here.

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While anything over the 500-watt motor limit is not an e-bike allowed on BC roads, they cannot be registered or licensed. Anything over that is meant to remain on private property or off-road areas for riders on ATVs and dirt bikes.

The advent of electric-powered bikes is a technological advancement cycling advocates are getting behind, but the increase in high-speed, throttle-driven bikes puts them at risk as much as anyone else.

Colin McKay, who leads a Kelowna road cycling club, said he crosses paths with the bikes all across the city. He describes them as motorcycles, but their appearance often allows them to “blend in” and appear road legal.

“When we have a large group on the rail trail, trying to be appropriate and share the space, and we’ve got motorcycles doing 70 (kilometres per hour) coming at us with barely any space, it’s really scary and uncomfortable,” he said. “This happens all the time now.”

McKay said he went to Kelowna RCMP to plead for more enforcement, especially on the Okanagan Rail Trail, but was told they didn’t have the staff to do so. He added that he has heard of collisions involving these bikes and other cyclists, but they sped off in both cases.

Despite the legal restrictions, they’re easy to find.

One of the most popular brands, Surron, has bikes that appear almost indistinguishable from gas-powered dirt bikes. Its smaller model, the Light Bee X, are available locally for around $6,000 and can almost reach 80 km/h in just a few seconds. Others like Biktrix look similar to a bicycle and can come pedal-assisted, but their 1,000 watt-plus motors can carry the bike to speeds over 60 km/h, costing around $3,000.

Check local neighbourhood social media groups and it’s easy to find numerous people complaining about riders speeding up and down residential streets, describing reckless behaviour. Or, travel through most suburban neighbourhoods, and even in the downtown core, in Kelowna and West Kelowna and it’s easy to spot them, sometimes in bike lanes and other times in playgrounds or on sidewalks.

If they don’t want to stop, they can easily flee police, who refrain from a chase. On July 20, iNFOnews.ca spotted one flee a cop in a West Kelowna parking lot in seconds. With the officer’s lights flashing and the siren on, the rider took a shortcut out of the parking lot and fled to Westbank First Nation, and the officer stopped before attempting to chase.

Off city streets, trail associations for mountain biking and hiking areas find they’re not only a safety risk but they damage the trails.

Former president of the Kelowna Area Cycling Coalition, Davis Kyle, said there’s a “perception of risk” around what is “functionally a motorcycle” despite a lack of statistics.

“Most people seem relatively against this stuff, but there isn’t much data to track them,” Kyle said. “Honestly, people in the cycling community kind of despise these kinds of e-bikes too, that are like motorcycles… and falling in this regulatory trap of them not being permitted but not really enforced, either.”

Unlike gas-powered mopeds and scooters, which are regulated and limited to using roads up to 60 km/h speeds, these e-bikes aren’t permitted on roadways at all.

Kelowna RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Stephen Lang said the detachment has “stopped, removed and ticketed 15 e-dirt bikes in Kelowna,” with varying degrees of fines and impounds.

“We are continuing our enforcement actions using various tools and sources of information to identify and locate riders who are operating the dirt bikes in Kelowna. We anticipate that the media campaigns, and education/enforcement by RCMP have contributed to reducing the lack of serious collisions and injuries,” Lang said in an emailed response.