On 20 Jan 2022, Rudy Canoza <notgenx33@gmail.com> posted some
news:JhjGJ.271011$1d1.173331@fx99.iad:

> I'm too short and weak to ride an e-bike. My dress will drag and get
> caught.

There�s no real difference between the chargers for an electric bike and a
MacBook Pro. But a new San Francisco law treats one as a dire threat to
public safety and the other as a harmless feature of everyday life. Some
of the city�s e-bike retailers now say that distinction could put them out
of business.

Responding to an increased number of fires spawned by improperly charged
e-bike batteries, the Board of Supervisors in February unanimously amended
the city�s fire code to regulate which e-bikes can be sold and how their
lithium-ion batteries are to be handled. Among other things, the law sets
a minimum distance between charging stations in stores and�perhaps most
cost-prohibitively�mandates the installation of sprinkler systems in shops
that charge five or more bikes. The fire marshal will work with owners to
ensure compliance.

�That basically means you�re putting any bike store without [sprinklers]
out of business,� said Eugene Dickey, the owner of Third Rail EBikes in
the Mission District. �We�re an older building. I don�t even have plumbing
here, so we�re talking on the order of $50,000 to $60,000 to get
sprinklers.�

The pandemic was a boom time for e-bike retailers, as the battery-powered
devices became a popular alternative for getting around San Francisco
without a car or just getting some exercise. But as gyms reopened and the
threat of Covid began to recede, bike manufacturers and retailers had to
grapple with another challenge: exploding battery cells, which generate
toxic fumes and scary headlines.

The San Francisco Fire Department now responds to an average of 30
exploding battery fires a year�some quite severe, like a November 2020
incident at a residential mid-rise that injured five people and displaced
15.

Brett Thurber, the founder of Bernal Heights e-bike shop The New Wheel,
agreed that safety concerns for cheaply made e-bike batteries are real.
But in spite of a few headline-grabbing incidents, he said, the increase
in fires is nowhere near the exponential growth in e-bike use. Cheap,
imported bikes that can be purchased online often don�t meet safety
standards. This is where most fires tend to come from, Thurber believes,
which is but one reason that The New Wheel doesn't stock them.

Thurber believes the city is overreacting with its new legislation. In New
York, tens of thousands of food-delivery drivers�often immigrants living
in substandard housing conditions�have daisy-chained power strips
together, sometimes charging dozens of cheap e-bikes at once and sparking
serious fires. That has not been the case in San Francisco, he said.

�It�s not that these bikes aren�t tested,� Thurber said of his stock of
Benno Boosts and Tern HSDs, which can cost upward of $4,200, far more than
the $500 e-bikes found on Amazon or Alibaba. The law allows for a six-
month grace period, for retailers like The New Wheel to comply, �but
they�re saying a lot of quality e-bikes are no longer allowed to be
charged in San Francisco apartments.�

At Scenic Routes Community Bike Shop in the Richmond District, the shop
policy is not to leave anything charging overnight or without an employee
present. But co-owner Jay Beaman called the law�s safety concerns
misplaced in comparison to the hazards on San Francisco streets.

Instead of worrying about the minimal number of fires caused by e-bike
batteries, regulators should be �talking about traffic deaths,� Beaman
said. �More pedestrians and cyclists are getting killed than ever before.�

Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who wrote the battery-charging legislation,
insisted the city is not looking to put bike shops out of business�let
alone go house to house in search of illegal bicycles. In drafting the
bill, he worked with a group of e-bike retailers as well as Lyft, which
operates the electric Bay Wheels bike-share fleet.

�We tried to do every compromise that the fire marshal didn�t think was
compromising public safety,� he said. �But there were certain points at
which the fire marshal said, �Hey, if you do these things, you might as
well not bother.��

One such compromise deals with safety certification. The e-bike industry
has evolved quickly, but some quality e-bikes may not yet have what�s
known as EN or UL certification, referring to European Standards and
Underwriters Laboratories. So Peskin rewrote the bill to allow the San
Francisco Fire Department the ability to make its own determination that
specific e-bikes are safe.

Kash of Warm Planet Bikes, one of the bike shop owners who worked with
Peskin and who uses only the one name, applauded the supervisor for taking
certification standards into account. But, he noted, the legislation
doesn�t address another safety issue, one even more keenly felt by
electric bike owners: theft.

�If you stand down on Market Street, you will see someone on a stolen e-
bike with a battery stolen from another e-bike duct-taped to the frame�and
you know this guy is charging it with a charger that is not rated for
whatever they are doing,� Kash said.

San Francisco fire marshal Ken Cofflin noted that the legislation doesn�t
actually single out e-bikes. It also covers e-scooters and
hoverboards�essentially, all electric mobility devices apart from
wheelchairs. Further, he believes the change was necessary because of the
uncontrolled way that damaged lithium-ion batteries typically burn, a
chain reaction known by the somewhat Chernobyl-esque term �thermal
runaway.�

�Lithium-ion batteries don�t burn out. Water doesn�t extinguish it,�
Cofflin said. �You have to keep cooling it. In a high-rise, you can�t drag
it outside.�

In a sense, it�s the very success of lithium-ion batteries that has
escalated these concerns. Since their introduction in the early 1990s,
they�ve become cheaper and more powerful, key elements in the transition
from the internal combustion engines. Powerful batteries can translate to
more intense fires�an uncomfortable tradeoff for consumers and lawmakers
committed to encouraging climate-safe modes of transportation.

�We understand the city wants more bicycles to lessen the carbon output,�
Cofflin said. �We�re not trying to stop that. We�d just like to get down
to zero fires.�

Update: This story has been updated to note that shops will have to
install sprinklers if they charge five or more e-bikes.

https://sfstandard.com/2024/03/10/san-francisco-ebike-safety-legislation/