This has been the summer of the e-bike. Or rather, the summer of assholes and idiots on e-bikes. I get the feeling it’s the same elsewhere, too.
My community is generally described as “affluent,” and the first thing you learn when you move here is, if you’re looking for someone to blame for teenage bad behavior, it’s usually the parents. When I was compiling police reports, I lost track of how many alcohol-soaked teen parties were saved from a law enforcement breakup by a lawyer dad stepping onto the front porch and denying entry. There was a horrific fatal car crash a couple years ago, where the teen driver was known to routinely travel at insane speeds — thanks, tracking apps — and was still allowed by his mother to drive. (The crash was on a residential street with a 25 mph speed limit. The kid was going 105 when he lost control. The passenger died, not him.) And this summer, it’s 13-year-olds on Class 2 or 3 e-bikes, bombing down sidewalks without a care in the world.
I hate to play in-my-day, but in my day, I got around on a 10-speed bicycle and felt like I had pure freedom under me. I can’t think of the last time I saw a kid on a regular old bike; they all have at least pedal assist or more frequently, throttles. These bikes are capable of 20 or 30 mph, and they are menaces. It would be one thing if they were ridden in the street, where they belong, but no. Their riders prefer the sidewalk, and they don’t practice even the simplest courtesies, like making noise when overcoming a pedestrian. That no one has been injured is a miracle. I have yet to see a kid wearing a helmet on one. EDIT: I should have said here that there hasn’t been a serious injury here. In Birmingham, two 13-year-olds on an e-moto, on the sidewalk, hit a turning truck, and both are in the ICU, a couple weeks later.
Last month, it was an actual chase on e-motos, which are a step above even the Class 3 e-bikes. They’ll go 50 mph, and three Grosse Pointe brats were, once again, blasting down a sidewalk on them when they caught the attention of the police, who chased and arrested them.
Other communities report similar incidents. And once again, I blame the parents. In my time on the planet, I’ve noticed a phenomenon among the better-off — as soon as they complain about what something their kid does costs, you can check your watch, and within 30 seconds they will tell you exactly what it costs. To wit: “My kid’s hockey is costing me so much, I can’t even tell you.” Three, two, one: “Twelve grand a year, can you believe it?” Or 20 grand, or 25. They have to tell you. They’re compelled to let you in on just how much income they’re willing to commit to their kid’s recreation.
And e-bikes, and e-motos, are not cheap. You’d have to be a very dedicated teenage lawn mower to save up the money for one. They are very dangerous, though, especially on sidewalks. One went past me so close a couple weeks ago I felt my arm hair stir. And downtown, leaving the jazz festival on my own 50-year-old regular bike, riding in the street, two young men on e-motos not only rode on a very narrow sidewalk, scattering pedestrians, they looked at me like I’m the chump, hey check out grandma pedaling her antique.
Damn kids these days. They’ll learn.
In other news at this hour, are you noticing a spate of car washes being built near you? We have; they’re popping up like mushrooms, sometimes within a block or two of an existing car wash. Guess who’s responsible? You won’t believe it:
This legislation permanently reinstated 100 percent bonus depreciation for qualified property placed in service after January 19th of [2025]. This change represents a game-changer for investors looking to reduce their tax burden while earning passive income through commercial real estate.
…Bonus depreciation allows investors to accelerate their tax deductions by expensing the entire cost of eligible assets in the first year. In the context of car wash investing, this can provide an enormous benefit.
Consider the following example:
** You invest two hundred fifty thousand dollars in a car wash syndication
** You receive a $400,000 depreciation allocation in the first year
** That amount may offset your taxable income from the investment and potentially from other passive income sources
** Your effective after-tax yield increases as your tax liability decreases
** In practical terms, investors can reduce or eliminate taxes on their distributions from the investment. For many, this creates a win-win situation: the combination of cash flow and significant tax deferral or reduction.
And why car washes? They require a big capital outlay up front, but begin cash flow quickly upon completion, so “this means the depreciation can potentially be matched to real distributions.” How nice. I can’t wait until we reach total market saturation, and these ugly monstrosities are abandoned to sit vacant and become crack houses. Data centers, but flashier.
OK, enough. We’re off to the Fort later this week, for a quick drop-in visit. Hoping for good weather, hoping for friendly faces. Hoping for fewer e-bikes.
Gretchen said on September 16, 2026 at 1:34 am
I saw one motorized bike labeled for ages 5-12 that could go 10-15 mph. These kids are barely old enough to cross the street themselves. They have no idea how long it takes to stop, or how long it takes a car to stop when they cut in front of one. I’m afraid it will take a tragedy before something is done. And adherents of « gentle parenting » have a hard time saying no to kids if it makes them sad.
There was a man in California who died after being hit by a kid on an e-bike.
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MarcG said on September 16, 2026 at 2:00 am
I see an interesting connection between your last post and this one, if you know what I mean. The main riders of e-bikes here in Riga are the food delivery guys, and after so many mishaps with pedestrians, the police started enforcing the no motorized vehicles on the sidewalks law. After a few citations they seem to be pretty much staying on the streets.
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David C said on September 16, 2026 at 5:42 am
E-bikes are doing exactly what they were supposed to do for the kids’ grandparents. On the trails we walk on, we see lots of people our age on e-bikes pedaling away and looking so happy. They’re probably feeling like they did on their ten-speeds back in the day. I wish they had been around when my dad got the urge to go bike riding in his early 70s. They lived in a hilly area and the hills were too much for him. Something with pedal assist would have been just the ticket for him. It might have added some years to his life.
We’re not having too much of a problem yet with the heck’s angels on e-bikes. I hope it stays that way. We have a miles and miles of bike lanes here in town. Maybe that keeps them off the sidewalks.
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nancy said on September 16, 2026 at 7:20 am
David, you’re correct. An older guy at my gym has a class 1, and says it’s the reason he can still ride there. If I lived in a hilly area, I might go for one myself. But Detroit is as flat as the swamp it once was, and it’s rare I even need to switch gears.
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Dave said on September 16, 2026 at 8:03 am
In the last couple of years before we moved out of Florida (2021), there were car washes being built everywhere in Pinellas County, one built on the site where there had been a church before. I wonder if there was some kind of tax break in Florida before it ended up in the bill to end all bills.
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Julie Robinson said on September 16, 2026 at 8:32 am
The local school system banned students from using any form of e-bikes after a kid was struck by a car and killed. He was riding on the street, which doesn’t seem like a great idea for a 13 yo. I thought they could have tried some interim steps, such as safety training and requiring helmets, but they wanted a quick fix. Not sure how enforcement is working out.
Today our main bathroom is being demoed for its long awaited rehab. It’s not only ugly as sin, it’s full of cracked and mismatched tile, tub is nasty, has no ventilation fan, etc, etc. But oh how I hate this part of the process.
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ROGirl said on September 16, 2026 at 8:38 am
2 kids on an e bike in Bloomfield Hills (wealthy suburb north of Detroit) were hit by a pickup truck last week. They were crossing a major 8 lane divided highway at the time, apparently at a crosswalk.
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alex said on September 16, 2026 at 8:58 am
We’ve been witnessing the proliferation of car washes and wondering WTF the last couple of years. We got “founding members” discounts at one new startup down the road that provides indoor facilities for vacuuming and detailing your vehicle. They do oil changes too. We subscribe despite having been offered free washes for life by the dealership where we bought our last car; the dealership’s facilities just don’t cut it and they’re also not as conveniently located.
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Jeff Borden said on September 16, 2026 at 9:09 am
E-scooters are the problem here. They’re silent, fast and difficult to see in traffic. I’m come close to clipping a couple passing on rhetoric right while making a turn.
Chicago ordinances require anyone over 12 to ride bikes in the street. Most cyclists follow the rules, but those who flout them are dangerous…especially when flying down a one-way street in the wrong direction.
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Pam H said on September 16, 2026 at 9:21 am
We also have car washes all over the place that were built before the BBB. Must be the lure of instant cash flow. Mostly, they’ve stuck them at the back of parking lots where no one wants to park as it’s too far from the door. A year or so ago when all that dust blew in from New Mexico and landed literally on everyone’s car, they did so much business they likely paid off the initial investment. The dust was so fine, you needed those big brushes to get it off.
I went to the one in the Kohl’s parking lot recently and now they’re offering memberships that encourage people to wash their car more frequently. They’re a pretty good deal if you want a sparkling clean car and don’t care that this is yet another business that sucks water out of the world. But that’s not a huge concern in a Great Lakes State where people believe we have enough water to waste. I couldn’t get the exact number of new car washes in the county but they did say that MooMoo alone expanded from 26 to 39 carwashes since 2020. There have also been numerous renovations of older car washes to become express washes. Lots of new tech and ideas in car washing, who knew? Those old ones as seen in the Car Wash movie are do dated. I also tripped over an explanation of the Car Wash Problem with AI which is interesting.
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Julie Robinson said on September 16, 2026 at 11:19 am
Speaking of kids these days, the ones across the street just got another of those hideous gigantic skeletons. They left the last one up year-round, putting a Santa hat on at Christmas. But it kept falling over in the wind and losing body parts, until it was just a headless torso.
Now they’ve bought another one! What’s the appeal? I just don’t get it.
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Deborah said on September 16, 2026 at 12:19 pm
Chicago too has lots of food delivery bikers that use sidewalks. Some use the streets but don’t obey stop signs and traffic lights so crossing streets is fun.
I don’t get the giant skeletons either.
In Santa Fe I was happy about more car washes, that fine NM dust is a mess. There weren’t very many around and the line to get through was often ridiculous. Waiting was also exacerbated when ICE was watching workers. Albuquerque had that famous one in Breaking Bad, don’t know if it’s still there.
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Jakash said on September 16, 2026 at 8:26 pm
“I hate to play in-my-day, but in my day, I got around on a 10-speed bicycle and felt like I had pure freedom under me.”
I’m happy to play in-my-day! I got around on a decades-old black Schwinn, until I paid $1 to a friend of mine for his Montgomery Ward behemoth, when he moved on to a real bike. Both were 1-speeds, yet I felt free as a bird. I dreamed of a nice Kelly Green Schwinn 5-speed which I never got — by the time I got a 10-speed, it was after college.
In Chicago, the bike crew insists that there should be bike lanes everywhere. I’m sorry, but as a pedestrian / biker / driver, bike lanes should mostly be kept to side streets. The bike lanes they’ve put on major streets scare the whatever out of me — I won’t use one when there’s a milder alternative a block or two away, and driving past the bikers and e-scooter folks that Jeff B. referred to is scary enough for me, in the car!
Meanwhile, we saw our first Halloween decorations on Labor Day, and the skeletons must be mating, because in the last few years they’ve really proliferated. That being said, I do kinda enjoy the giant skeleton dogs that accompany some.
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Deborah said on September 16, 2026 at 8:49 pm
When I was a young teen I bought myself a used, three speed bike, what I only ever referred to as an English racer, I have no idea what the brand was. I bought it with baby sitting money and I loved it. I would fly around for blocks and blocks away from home, no one thought a thing of it, whether it was safe or not. Miami was flat as a pancake so it wasn’t difficult at all. Those were the days, I haven’t been on a bicycle for decades. I would never in a million years bike on Chicago streets, The trail along the lake is another story, it looks so fun.
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David C said on September 17, 2026 at 6:00 am
Maybe some day, I’ll get to go to The Netherlands to see how they do bike lanes. Just from reading, it sounds heavenly. I don’t ride on bike lanes on busy streets either, Jackash. Driving around, I see too many people who seem mostly not able to keep withing the lines. I’m not going to test the physics of 4000 lbs vs 220 lbs. I know how it will turn out.
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Deborah said on September 17, 2026 at 9:39 am
They have a rent-a-bike system in Chicago called Divvy, it seems to get a lot of use and some abuse. We see trashed Divvy bikes abandoned on the sidewalks and along the lake. I suppose some of them could be from accidents.
Rainy day in Chicago and I have to get out in it later, unfortunately.
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alex said on September 17, 2026 at 9:51 am
I used to rollerblade to get around in Chicago, and had some weird close calls with cars. One time a car did an abrupt left turn in front of me and I hunched down into a ball, smacked the side of the car and went spinning like a top, eventually emerging upright while the driver high-tailed it away. One time a sociopath bicyclist at Sheridan and Foster deliberately rammed into me head-on and took off. But what finally made me hang up my skates for good was the time I came upon a pair of lifeless mangled legs donned in rollerblades that were sticking out from underneath a crashed vehicle surrounded by police and medics.
I stopped riding my bicycle in Chicago only because I lost my bike lock key (and all of my other keys) in Lake Michigan. I ended up leaving that bike behind in my old condo building, chained to a rack in the bike room.
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Heather said on September 17, 2026 at 12:28 pm
There was so much hate out there for people on bikes already, I fear that e-bikes and e-motos are just making it worse. And those scooters. Like you, Nancy, I see a lot of kids riding them incredibly irresponsibly–not just on sidewalks but careening through red lights, etc. I’m not saying I’ve never ridden through a red light on my bike, but only when I’ve determined there’s no traffic coming, and only on less busy intersections.
One thing I always see in comments is “Cyclists need to follow the rules of the road.” And I always think, be careful what you wish for. Most drivers would have a stroke if cyclists did this–coming to a full stop at every intersection, etc. (I actually want to try this for a day and record it.) Also, when we do follow the rules, many drivers still get pissed off. I’ve been yelled at for safely moving to the left of a lane and signaling a left turn, and for riding in the middle of the road (because there were potholes–a valid and legal reason for cyclists to take the lane). I always say, just say you don’t want bikes on the road–it’s faster and more honest.
Part of the problem is how car-brained most people are, and I include myself back when I used to drive more. Most drivers feel very entitled to get where they’re going as fast as possible with as few impediments as possible, and that’s not the case.
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David C said on September 17, 2026 at 12:40 pm
The only response a cyclist who has spent any time riding on the streets and is told we need to follow traffic laws needs to make is “You first”. When I do Idaho stops, it doesn’t affect them at all. When they run a stop sign in front of me I could die.
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Julie Robinson said on September 17, 2026 at 2:26 pm
Riding bikes on the street has always terrified me. When I was little, a boy was killed by a car almost across the road from us. The second our little gravel country road was paved it became an Indy 500 rival for proving speed. Mom & Dad said no going out there, which I find understandable from my perspective today.
So I never got much experience. Rode some as an adult until my bad knee took me out. Our daughter put me on her e-bike, and the circular motion made the knee hurt. I’m done.
To no one’s surprise, the bathroom demolition has revealed some big problems with our old house. Lord knows how long the project was just extended. Blergh.
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Bruce Fields said on September 22, 2026 at 10:44 am
“They were crossing a major 8 lane divided highway at the time, apparently at a crosswalk.”
Well that sounds like a problem right there.
I find the recent term “stroad” useful for this kind of thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stroad
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