Hillsboro: E-Bikes, Scooters in 11 of 33 Crashes City Staff Wrote Up This Summer
- Eleven of the 33 crashes Hillsboro Public Works staff wrote up for the city's Transportation Committee from June 10 to Sept.
- The memos, filed in the committee's July 28, Aug.
- Even as a selection, the memos show which road users appear most often in the city's own reports.
Eleven of the 33 crashes Hillsboro Public Works staff wrote up for the city’s Transportation Committee from June 10 to Sept. 9 involved a rider on an e-bike or motorized scooter, a Focus Hillsboro count of three city crash memos shows. In September, parks staff reported they were awaiting the City Attorney after meeting with police about e-bike codes.
The memos, filed in the committee’s July 28, Aug. 25 and Sept. 22 meeting packets, are “for information only.” They are not a full count of crashes in the city. Staff write up only crashes “within Hillsboro city limits” where “Serious or Fatal injuries occurred,” a pedestrian was involved or a bicycle was involved.
Counting the summer’s crash write-ups
Even as a selection, the memos show which road users appear most often in the city’s own reports. We sorted all 33 entries by the road user each memo names, counting every crash once. No crash appears in more than one memo, though the Sept. 22 memo adds crashes from July 28 and Aug. 7 that were “not available during last reporting period.”
| Road user named in the entry | July 28 memo | Aug. 25 memo | Sept. 22 memo | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| E-bike (electric bicycle) | 2 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
| E-scooter or motorized scooter | 3 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| Bicycle not described as electric | 7 | 0 | 1 | 8 |
| Pedestrian | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| Vehicles or motorcycles only | 4 | 1 | 4 | 9 |
| All entries | 18 | 3 | 12 | 33 |
Our calculation from the three Public Works crash memos (June 10–July 14, July 14–Aug. 11 and Aug. 12–Sept. 9). Each entry is counted once, under the type of vehicle or road user the memo names. The last row includes one gas-powered pocket motorcycle. The memos’ stated criteria do not mention e-bikes or scooters.
Together, e-bikes and scooters account for 11 entries, our calculation, against eight for bicycles not described as electric. Those eight include the June 23 crash at E Main Street and NE Century Boulevard, where the bicyclist “sustained fatal injuries.” The July 28 memo says excessive vehicle speed is “believed to have been a contributing factor” but that no final determination had been made.
Right turns across the rider’s path
Within the 11 e-bike and scooter entries, six describe a driver turning right as the rider came through, our count. The drivers were turning onto a cross street, into a parking lot or out of a driveway. The memos place three riders in a bike lane, including an e-bike rider on SE Tualatin Valley Highway who reported going about 30 mph there on Aug. 9.
That report noted the bike’s speed may have kept it “within the driver’s blind spot,” and no citations were issued. Drivers were cited in four of the 11, our count. After an Aug. 11 crash near SE 10th Avenue and SE Maple Street, the driver was cited for “Failure to Yield to a Motorized Scooter Operator and Driving Uninsured.”
Two of the 11 involved serious injuries, according to the memos. One was a June 27 e-scooter crash at NE 106th Avenue and NE Cornell Road. The other, on Aug. 7 at NE 85th Avenue and NE Swire Street, seriously injured two juveniles riding one e-bike, which the Sept. 22 memo says “was determined to qualify as a Class III all-terrain vehicle.”
E-bike codes wait on the City Attorney
According to that memo, the bike could go faster than Oregon’s legal definition of an electric-assisted bicycle allows. Local e-bike rules have come up at City Hall as well. At the Aug. 18 City Council meeting, Councilor Saba Anvery asked staff to look into e-bike regulations “such as age limits and requiring helmets,” the minutes in the Oct. 6 council packet say.
Parks staff gave a later update. Draft minutes of the Sept. 24 Parks & Recreation Commission meeting say staff members Kendall Reid and Ken Pipher “met with the Hillsboro Police Department to discuss e-bike codes, enforcement levels, and community education.” Staff “are awaiting a response from the City Attorney,” the minutes add, but they do not describe a proposed ordinance or a due date.
E-bikes also appear in a Public Works safety review. An Aug. 25 audit of the city’s Transportation Safety Action Plan, adopted in October 2024, lists this recommended action: “Update crash reporting and database to track micromobility and e-mobility (e-bikes, scooters, etc).” Each of the three crash memos cites the plan’s goal: “Zero serious injury and fatality crashes by 2035.”
The committee meets Oct. 27
The Transportation Committee, which received all three memos, next meets Tuesday, Oct. 27, at 5:30 p.m. in the Civic Center Auditorium and on Zoom, according to the city’s CivicWeb meeting page. No agenda was posted there as of Oct. 20. That means it is not yet clear whether the next crash memo will be on it.
The committee’s September agenda explains how to speak. People in the room fill out a yellow card, and people joining on Zoom register with Public Works by 3 p.m. on the meeting day, at 503-681-6146. Comments are limited to three minutes.
Residents can also raise street safety concerns with Public Works between meetings. The September packet’s log of resident requests lists ones received by web form, email and phone. One asked for bike-lane buffers on Quatama, and staff replied that the city does not place them where there are no “documented crashes or conflicts” between cars and bikes.
Top image: Illustrative image, 2022: an e-bike rider in a bike lane in Bend, Oregon (faces and plates blurred). Photo: Oregon Department of Transportation, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).
