I would like to call to order tonight's town council work session of August 24th, 2026.

And our first item for discussion tonight is the e-butt bike and e-scooter safety education and enforcement.

Chief Burnett, welcome.

Thank you.

Good evening.

I'm here tonight with assistant town attorney Jessica Arena.

We want to talk to you about e-bikes and e-scooters, what we're currently seeing in Leesburg, our current legal framework that we're doing for enforcement and our safety campaigns we're doing.

In addition to that, we do want to give you an option to consider a local regulation if you believe it's appropriate.

We're not presenting any specific ordinance.

We just want to leave it up to you and explain to you at your discretion if you want to see something, but I want to show you what we're doing right now.

So one of the biggest enforcement challenges that we're seeing right now is these devices are not easily recognizable.

For e-bikes, the motor maximum assisted speed and whether the device can operate through a throttle all affect how it is classified.

In Virginia, you currently have class one, class two, class three, e-bikes.

I'm going to talk to you in a couple minutes about some crashes we've had.

But the device said it was a class two.

So that's one of the hindrances we're kind of seeing, then it's not that simple.

So in addition to that, these bikes and scooters, it depends on the age of the operator, where it's being operated.

So there's a lot of nuances as to how these devices can be regulated.

So I just want to make that clear.

A lot of these e-scooters are actually being counted for reporting purposes under pedestrians because we're still behind a little bit on state reporting standards, and some of these e-bikes may be classified as cyclist or motorcycles, depending on how they're being assessed at the scene by the officers.

So just to make you aware, these are this is our something we're seeing.

Our most recent in some of this, we had an e-bike rider crash into a regular cyclist.

We've had e-scooters into vehicles.

Our most recent crash was an e-bike rider who crashed into a vehicle.

They disregarded a stop sign.

I want to point that out, and they were coming off the W and O D trail where that particular vehicle had it really been a class two, would have been perfectly legal, but it turns out it was a class three.

So we're still investigating that one and expect charges that are appropriate on that one.

So what our response has been.

We noticed obviously last year an increase as I'm sure you did in these devices around town.

So we did launch a very proactive education campaign back in June 2025.

We did develop educational materials in both English and Spanish.

You have a copy of the English handout there that we did that we put out and we share still.

We put it out on social media.

We certainly deliver it out at community events.

We recently hosted a bike safety event.

Internally, we also worked on training our officers.

We provided department guidance.

We consulted with the Commonwealth Attorney's Office.

We wanted to make sure we were on the same page with them and understanding what law would be applicable in these different situations and which ones they were enforced.

So those are the or which ones they will prosecute if we enforce them.

So we wanted to make sure everybody was on the same page.

So legally, we are using obviously Virginia law.

Um Virginia law addresses its device classification, like I just explained with class one, class two, class three with the e-bikes.

The traffic operation, once it's on the road, they do have to follow the traffic laws that anyone else would have to follow if they were in a vehicle.

Um, there is licensing and registration requirements once it's no longer a class three.

So any any e-bike that goes beyond 28 miles per hour is now over 35 miles an hour, it's actually going to be a motorcycle by code, even though it's electric, and I think that's where a lot of the confusion is with parents in particular, not understanding they would probably never buy their kid a motorcycle at 14 years of old, but they're thinking because it's electric, it's not a motorcycle.

If it's going over 35 miles per hour, it is a motorcycle, and they are required to have a license.

Um, the town ordinances do address our helmet requirements for riders under the age of 14, and they also restrict bicycles and similar devices on certain sidewalks.

So we already have an enforcement mechanism for that.

The WD trail also has their own regional trail rules, and that is like I stated earlier, they can only have class one, class two, which are typically up to 20 miles per hour, bike e-bikes on the trails right now.

So the challenge is not necessarily an absence of regulation, it is like I explained, identifying what these devices' capabilities are and the locations and the age of the operator.

That's where we're running into the biggest struggle.

So our our approach and our force enforcement approach was as I discussed the consultation with the Commonwealth Attorney's Office.

So an adult who commits a traffic violation may receive a summons just like they were driving a vehicle.

The same approach may be used for juvenile if they're age 14 or older in the circumstances support that type of situation.

For children under 14, our approach has been to release the child and the device to a parent or a guardian and provide them with the education on the particular laws and the safety concerns with that device.

So we don't take someone to custody for violating one of these laws, and it's going to be officer discretion based on the totality of the circumstances and the rider's conduct and what kind of enforcement's going to happen.

So then when is an e-bike or an e-scooter towed?

So it's not going to be automatic simply because we have a violation of law, it's the same thing with the vehicle.

We don't automatically tow someone's vehicle for breaking the law.