Alex Guess deserves considerable credit. At 12 years old, he’s watched classmates get hurt, decided that was unacceptable, started a petition, approached elected officials and written two opinion pieces demanding action. That takes courage, persistence and genuine concern for the safety of young riders and the community around them. Alex has already learned something many adults never do: one person can help move a public conversation forward.
He clearly has a tremendous future ahead.
I also hope he keeps researching.
At 12, Alex should not be expected to have spent years studying injury prevention, adolescent behavior, transportation planning, enforcement, consumer protection and the often-confusing laws governing electric two-wheelers. Adults struggle to put those pieces together, too. That’s precisely why a problem this complicated cannot be solved by a short list of restrictions alone.
There’s also a fundamental distinction getting lost in the e-bike debate.
Many of the fastest machines alarming parents, schools and police are not legal Class 2 or Class 3 e-bikes, at all. They’re illegal out-of-class e-motos — often marketed to families as e-bikes, sometimes with pedals that do little more than create that illusion of compliance. California’s Attorney General has warned that vehicles exceeding the state’s e-bike speed or power limits, or lacking fully operable pedals, are not e-bikes.
Calling everything an “e-bike” leads to bad policy. We risk overregulating lawful riders while failing to address the products and behaviors creating the greatest danger.
That is one reason I founded the Bellemont Project: to help communities move beyond fragmented responses and toward a complete safety strategy.
Our work includes:
- The Caring Parent’s E-Bike Survival Guide. A practical roadmap for families — from purchasing a legal, appropriate e-bike and keeping it compliant, to managing teen rider conduct. It offers concrete strategies for reinforcing safer behavior and helping young riders channel their enthusiasm and talent into constructive advocacy for safer places to ride.
- The Incline Program. Rules alone do not change behavior. Incline uses behavior-management strategies to help young riders resist online influencer manipulation, peer pressure and risky choices, while also addressing teens who simply fail to prioritize safety in the moment. The new Incline Program provides these interventions at key touchpoints, including school assemblies, rodeos, healthcare visits and diversion programs.
- Advisory services. Communities often have good people doing good work in separate lanes. I help agencies identify gaps, connect enforcement, education, parent engagement, consumer protection, infrastructure and youth behavior, to build a comprehensive strategic plan that works.
- Regional e-bike safety summits. These gatherings bring elected leaders, law enforcement, schools, healthcare and injury-prevention professionals, transportation experts, business leaders and other stakeholders together to stop working in silos. This regional model is gaining serious traction in Northern California, where communities recognize that riders cross city boundaries easily, making a patchwork approach to ordinances ineffective.
At the center is the Bellemont Project’s Six-Point Plan: Compliance Motivation, Consumer Awareness, Policies and Communications, Informed Enforcement, Infrastructure Improvements, and Developing E-Biking as a Sport.
It’s not that every community needs six new programs. However, leaders should ask six different questions before assuming another regulation is the answer.
Are we motivating safer conduct? Are parents buying the right vehicles? Are agencies communicating consistently? Does law enforcement understand the full extent of what it’s encountering? Are young riders being given safer infrastructure? And are we providing legitimate opportunities for kids who love bikes, speed, stunts and competition to build skills and status — moving from the streets to stadiums?
That last question matters enormously.
In his latest article, Alex says young riders need “rules, knowledge and safer places to ride.”
On that, we agree.
If we want young people out of dangerous traffic, we have to give them somewhere better to go. Skateboarding and snowboarding were once orphan sports. Advocates of all ages helped create parks, standards, competitions and legitimacy. Both eventually reached the Olympics.
Young e-bike and e-moto riders deserve adults willing to imagine that kind of pathway instead of seeing prohibition as the only form of safety. While I can’t promise anyone Olympic gold, we can agree that it’s a much safer stunt-rider route than the 5 freeway.
My work is strongly influenced by developmental psychologist Dr. David Yeager’s book 10 to 25: The Science of Motivating Young People. Yeager explains how strongly young people respond to status, respect and social reward, and how adults can use what he calls a mentor mindset: respect young people’s perspectives, maintain high expectations and support their efforts to find constructive paths forward.
That framework is especially relevant now.
Some teens are being manipulated online by influencers who make reckless public-road riding look exciting, rebellious and socially rewarding. Peer groups can reinforce the same message. Other teens simply do not keep safety at the front of their minds. They may know the rules perfectly well and still fail to prioritize them when excitement, friends, speed or distraction takes over.
If adults respond only with punishment, lectures and bans, we may never address what is actually driving the behavior.
Alex, I recommend 10 to 25 to you. Not because your voice matters less at 12, but because your voice already matters — and understanding how young people are motivated could make your advocacy even more powerful.
Orange County does need action. But action should be strategic, not simply reactive.
I invite parents, elected officials, educators, law enforcement, public health professionals and community leaders to visit BellemontProject.com and see what an e-bike safety professional and member of the American Trauma Society as an Injury Prevention Professional can offer: proactive safety strategies rather than reactive legislation.
We can protect pedestrians, motorists and families while respecting young riders as members of the community — and as part of the solution.
And my biggest invitation is to Alex and other young riders: contact me. Help us advocate for safe spaces where young people can get out of traffic, practice skills and stunts, compete, build friendships and earn the respect they’re seeking.
Young riders should not merely be the subjects of our next safety policy.
They should help us build it.
Beth Black of Irvine is a credentialed educator, UC Irvine-trained social ecologist, former e-bike dealership co-owner, founder of the Bellemont Project and author of the Amazon bestselling The Caring Parent’s E-Bike Survival Guide, Second Edition. Basing her work on the Bellemont Project’s Six-Point Plan, she provides communities with comprehensive, behavior-informed strategies for e-bike and e-moto safety.
Opinions expressed in community opinion pieces belong to the authors and not Voice of OC.
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