It Didn’t Matter That She Was Riding an E-Bike
A person on an e-bike in Carlsbad, CA. Note the obstructions in the bike lane and how there is nothing other than paint separating the cyclist from traffic. Conditions like these create a hazardous—even deadly—environment for people using bicycles. (Photo source: The Coast News Group/Steve Puterski.)
On August 7, 2022, Christine Hawk Embree was struck by a car while biking with her daughter in her hometown of Carlsbad, California. She ultimately did not survive her injuries, leaving behind her daughter and husband. These were the headlines that followed the tragedy:
The Coast News, August 8, 2022: “Mother injured in e-bike accident in Carlsbad”
The Coast News, August 16, 2022: “Carlsbad mother’s e-bike death stuns residents”
NBC San Diego, August 9 2022: “Carlsbad Mother Killed While Riding E-Bike With Young Daughter.”
Fox 5 San Diego, August 16, 2022: Family of Mom Killed on E-bike Pushes for Safer Streets
The fixation on e-bikes in every headline could be chalked up to the game of Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, wherein popular keywords are chosen to harvest the most valuable currency for any news outlet: clicks. E-bikes, like autonomous vehicles and artificial intelligence, are some of the latest buzzwords entering the popular zeitgeist in a way that makes almost any news about them polarizing.
Nevertheless, a marketing strategy doesn’t absolve these outlets of distorting the focus of what actually killed Embree.
They’ve Been Begging For Change
A week after her death, Embree’s grieving husband spoke on the same podium where, just 19 days earlier, he was urging the Carlsbad City Council to redesign the neighborhood streets.
“We have young kids that walk to school there,” Bob Embree told the council. “Speed bumps, roundabouts, stop signs, anything to save a life. All I’m asking is if we can slow traffic down and save a life.”
Locals have been desperate for traffic calming interventions, citing ceaseless speeding in a neighborhood that’s seen significant growth of traffic in recent decades. “We’ve truly witnessed fundamental changes on our streets,” Todd Harris, who lives right at the intersection of the crash, shared. “They were designed 50 years ago for a different type of traffic.”
Furthermore, the summer of Embree’s death was uniquely deadly, claiming several lives on Carlsbad’s streets. That’s what prompted Bob to address the council in July. What he couldn’t have predicted then is that his wife would be among the victims just days later.
He and his family have since continued petitioning for design interventions that would compel drivers to slow down. While there’s disagreement over what approach would be most effective, the consensus is that design is culpable, and change is urgently needed.
“We can’t afford another accident. We can’t afford another six months of data where there could possibly be another fatal accident,” another Carlsbad resident told Fox 5 San Diego after the crash. “We need to act now.”
The City Responded…but It’s Not Enough
Three weeks later, on August 23, 2023, it appeared as if the city had heard the cries of local advocates. Carlsbad declared a local state of emergency for bike, e-bike, and traffic safety, citing a 233% increase in collisions since 2019. The declaration awarded Carlsbad the power to expedite specific actions and bypass bureaucratic processes to address an “imminent threat” for the next seven days.
For residents, this was an unprecedented opportunity for the city to sweep in and implement the changes they’d been petitioning for years. After seven days, however, the site of the crash looked the same as it did on August 6, when Embree was struck.
Nevertheless, within a month, the city launched the Safer Streets Together Plan, an initiative entirely focused on changing “public behaviors and attitudes by focusing on education, engineering and enforcement.”
“It wasn’t just, ‘Here’s an emergency.’ The public saw real things happening in the first weeks and months and that’s how this has changed things so quickly,” alleged Chief Innovation Officer David Graham at Safer Street’s launch.
As of this writing, the site of the crash looks the same as it did a year and a half ago, and Carlsbad spent 2023 mourning dozens of traffic deaths. A resident even nominated the crash that killed Embree to the Strong Towns Crash Analysis Studio in the hopes that renewed attention will push the city to action.
Despite the reality on the ground for Carlsbad residents, the city is convinced that their focus on behavior is working. They’re ramping up enforcement and education for e-bike users—for example, Carlsbad’s School districts now regulate e-bike use, concluding that students who wish to commute to school using electronically assisted bicycles in the notoriously hilly city should obtain a permit first. In order to receive a permit, students must submit an application and attend a mandatory bicycle safety presentation. A 2015 California code that grouped “e-bikes” with “traditional human-powered bicycles” is under scrutiny again, with many hoping for stricter rules around classification.
The city recognizes that commuting by bicycle—electronically assisted or not—is growing in popularity. It likewise admits that alongside that rising popularity came a rising death toll. For many of the city’s cyclists, however, in concentrating on behavior, Carlsbad is confusing correlation with causation.
The city is not without painted bike lanes, but for many relying on two wheels to get around, the infrastructure dedicated to their safe travel is limited. Bikes routinely mingle with those in cars on roads designed only with the latter in mind, something even Carlsbad officials have admitted.
“I’d much rather see a kid riding a bike than playing video games,” Lt. Ryan Wisniewski, of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department said. “But when you see them riding down [Coast Highway] 101 or some of the major thoroughfares like El Camino, they’re going 20 mph on an e-bike and cars are going 50 mph. You’re asking a 12-year-old to make a split-second decision like they’re a regular driver with no driver safety program or training.”
Yet, after making that observation, they’ve determined that behavioral education will make the biggest difference in saving lives, rather than constructing an environment wherein that mingling is the exception, not the default.
Asia (pronounced “ah-sha”) Mieleszko serves as a Staff Writer for Strong Towns. A dilettante urbanist since adolescence, she's excited to convert a lifetime of ad-hoc volunteerism into a career. Her unconventional background includes directing a Ukrainian folk choir, pioneering synaesthetic performances, photographing festivals, designing websites, teaching, and ghostwriting. She can be found wherever Wi-Fi is reliable, typically along Amtrak's Northeast Corridor.