Motor-assisted personal vehicles (e-bikes) was the subject of a public input meeting held Tuesday night by Stephens City Town Council.
An e-bike is a bike equipped with a battery and a small electric motor, and they have become extremely popular.
But they don't require a license to drive, and they can reach speeds of nearly 30 miles per hour.
In Stephens City, some residents have been complaining about kids driving e-bikes recklessly on Main Street and throughout the town, prompting Tuesday's meeting.
The meeting gave residents, council members, and town police a chance to share their thoughts and concerns about e-bikes and propose possible solutions.
Council member Pete Fravel said he and his wife were driving into the Stephens Landing subdivision when a brother and a sister on an e-bike blew through a stop sign at 30 miles per hour, slamming into the side of their car.
"Both kids went to the hospital, one was in the hospital in NOVA, [he was] admitted for four days. It caused $8,000 of damage [to the vehicle]," Fravel said. "If they had been about a second earlier, they would've been under the front of the car and not the side of the car."
There was a general sentiment among those who spoke, including Town Council member Brian Woodruff, that it's only a matter of time before an even more serious crash occurs.
"I see them speeding on Route 11... weaving in and out, and it's just an accident waiting to happen. And when it happens to somebody that's near and dear to you, it's not gonna be a very good day," Woodruff said.
Resident Dixie Erwin said a group of children on e-bikes often rides fast and does wheelies on the street in front of her side porch, which is near a busy intersection.
"My main concern is that they're pulling out in front of traffic, and they are endangering the people that are walking dogs," Erwin said. "I hope that we can do something. I don't want to keep kids [from] being kids, but what is happening is not kid-like."
Resident Paul Culp complained about e-bikes, and vehicles without mufflers in general, disturbing the peace of his own home.
"Before this year, we did not have trouble conversing in our living room. We now do," Culp said. "We've always used a white noise machine... in the last year, we have had to begin running our air conditioner on fan at night year-round. Plus, I wear ear plugs, and I wear a gun muffler, and it's not enough."
Mayor Mike Diaz emphasized that helmets should be worn and that no types of bikes should be ridden on sidewalks. But he conceded that it's hard for the Stephens City Police Department to enforce these rules because it's understaffed.
"I also see the police's difficulty with being able to enforce that, as I'm sure many who are here are aware, we only have two police officers at this point in time," Diaz said.
Police Chief Bill Copp reiterated his department's staffing issues and said the e-bike problem is something that many localities across the nation are dealing with.
"We try to do everything we can do. I don't know in the future if we're going to maybe adopt an ordinance in town to make things change," Copp said.
On the topic of passing laws against e-bikes, Town Attorney David Griffin said the Virginia General Assembly gives towns the power to make some changes to the law, and that riding e-bikes on sidewalks is already illegal.
"There's a lot of abilities to do some regulations... My former law partner is one of the local judges. I've had many discussion with him about this. He says, 'If you just hold the parents responsible, I'll be happy to lock them up,'" Griffin said. "I'm not sure that's the answer because then we're gonna be going to DSS [Department of Social Services] for taking care of the kid while the parents are in jail. So there is a multiple [faceted] balancing [act] that is, let me just be blunt, damn near impossible to get exactly right. But we're gonna try."
Griffin said Tuesday's meeting was held to hear residents' concerns before deciding what ordinance amendments to pursue. He said the town already has a draft that just needs tweaking. One of the potential ideas is establishing a fine structure for parents of children who are involved in e-bike-related offenses.
"We should start hitting them in the pocketbook," Vice Mayor Butch Fravel said about parents. "Last year we ticketed one of the parents for a kid that had a moped, and that cut things down for the remainder of the summer really."