Slowing the Wave: Bringing sustainable community wide solution to e-bike safety

Lorrie Lynn, MA, CPSTI

In 2025, Rady Children's Hospital Trauma Center treated 262 children 11-14 years of age who were riding e-bikes. Slowing the Wave is an e-bike education and bike skills program meant to address this growing trend. This program is a three-pronged wrap around approach to reducing the rising e-bike injuries in San Diego County. Through an online e-bike safety curriculum, school-based bike skills experience and workshops for youth and their caregivers we will inform, educate, train, and engage children, youth, and families to increase safety on e-bikes.

This project combines safety education and bike skills to increase the knowledge of risks and benefits of e-bikes. By increasing knowledge about e-bikes for adults/parents, children, and teens in communities and schools. E-bikes provide exercise and allow teens freedom to ride without family; we want to provide injury prevention strategies and skills education to ensure safe handling of the e-bikes reducing injuries. The school program for education and skills is critical to ensuring that bike riders and e-bike riders know the classification of e-bikes, the rules of the road, and the risks. Students complete a standardized e-bike training curriculum. Students must pass a knowledge assessment to earn a certificate of completion before advancing to the bike skills training. Parent and Teen Workshops create space to bring both into e-bike education. Workshops educate caregivers and teens while providing separate, targeted learning. Guidance on e?bike purchasing decisions, local laws, and supervision strategies; teens participate in interactive activities including helmet fitting and reaction?time challenges. Finally, a Parent–Teen Riding Agreement to reinforces shared responsibility.

Slowing the Wave addresses a growing and preventable public health issue with a scalable, data?driven solution. By combining education, skills training, and parent engagement, the program moves beyond awareness to real behavior change, helping youth ride safely, supporting families in making informed decisions, and giving schools a practical tool to reduce risk and injury. The primary audience is children and teens ages 11–14, with secondary reach to parents and caregivers. Annually, the program is designed to reach: • 4,000 students through school?based programs • 100+ teens and caregivers through workshops With adoption across multiple school districts, the program has the potential to reach thousands more students each year.

Slowing the Wave addresses a growing and preventable public health issue with a scalable, data?driven solution. By combining education, skills training, and parent engagement, the program moves beyond awareness to real behavior change, helping youth ride safely, supporting families in making informed decisions, and giving schools a practical tool to reduce risk and injury.

1. Big problems need visionary approaches to change behavior
2. Train-the-trainer models create champions who can expand their reach into their communities
3. Engaging students as leaders gives them the status and respect to influence peers

Injury Prevention Leadership in Youth E-Bike Harm Reduction

Marlene Melzer-Lange, MD
Phyllis Agran, MD, MPH, MA
Jamie Holland, MD
Romeo Ignacio, MD
Lorrie Lynn, MA, CPSTI

Time: 20 minutes Introduction & Rapid Rounds: Small Group Formation: 20 minutes Small Group Report Back & Discussion: 15 minutes with final Comments 5 minutes This 60 minute interactive workshop builds on the keynote presentation on the growing youth e-bike safety crisis by moving participants from awareness to practical action. Through facilitated small-group discussion, participants will examine how we as injury prevention leaders can respond to rising pediatric e-bike injuries through education, harm reduction, advocacy, and partnership development. In preparation for the workshop, participants will be asked to review their state’s e-bike and helmet laws using a designated state law resource website and complete a worksheet with preliminary information related to minimum rider age, helmet requirements, passenger restrictions, speed limits, licensing and registration, and permitted riding locations such as sidewalks, bike paths, and streets. During the workshop, participants will work in facilitated small groups organized by regions to discuss how they could identify specific actions in their own region from the clinic to the community to the state or local policy makers. Groups will then identify three priority concerns amendable to action. Examples may include lack of helmet use, unsafe passenger practices, excessive speeds, distracted riding, weak enforcement, limited parent awareness, or inadequate infrastructure. This could include trainings for pediatricians and other stakeholders related to public and parent awareness and social media campaigns. Participants will also identify potential partners needed to address these concerns, such as schools, law enforcement, trauma centers, public health departments, parent organizations, transportation planners, retailers, or youth-serving organizations. The workshop will include applied communication exercises focused on both advocacy and family engagement. Each group will prepare a brief “elevator speech” aimed at a local policymaker or community leader advocating for stronger youth e-bike safety measures. Finally, participants will identify at least one realistic action they could implement within the next three months and determine who they would partner with to advance that effort. The workshop will conclude with group report-outs and facilitated discussion to share key themes, innovative ideas, advocacy strategies, and opportunities for collaboration across communities and disciplines.

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
1. Describe their state and local e-bike laws related to youth riders, including helmet use, rider age, passenger restrictions, and riding locations.
2. Identify and prioritize three community harm-reduction strategies to address youth e-bike injuries and unsafe riding behaviors.
3. Develop communication strategies for counseling families and advocating with policymakers about youth e-bike safety, mindful of equity issues.
4. Identify key partners and stakeholders needed to advance clinic-, community-, and/or policy-level interventions.
5. Create one actionable next step to implement within the next three months.

Bringing a Project Management Mindset to Injury Prevention

Lorrie Lynn, MA, CPSTI

DESCRIPTION: Time: 90 minutes 1. Introduction: 15 minutes 2. Individual or small group work on Outcome Logic Model: 20 minutes 3. Discussion of process: 10 minutes 4. Continue adding the Project Management component: 25 minutes 5. Report out: 20 minutes This 90-minute interactive workshop builds skills among injury prevention advocates to take ideas and strategies through a step-by-step approach to Program execution. At the conclusion participants will have an Outcome Logic Model and Program Management plan to initiate when they return home. Outcome Logic Models (OLM) is a proven planning process for creating a clear program vision for resource needs, activities, and expected changes. These models are effective for communicating program goals, the challenge remains in executing these goals successfully. Project Management is a process with defined steps that manages the execution of the program. The development of a project management brief defines resources and coordinates implementation. This approach equips the team with tools and frameworks for more effective, sustainable projects. The Facilitator will share an overview of how these two planning processes are and how they are beneficial in achieving program outcomes. This will be through a program example on water safety. During the first part of the workshop participants will work on their own OLM with guidance from colleagues and the facilitator. In the second session participants will work on a project management tool to support the program designed in the OLM. Discussion between the two sessions encourage participants to share their work with the group. With feedback from the group and facilitator. The workshop will conclude with participants having an OLM and Project management plan to begin when they return home.

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
1. Understand project planning principles including approaches, managing stakeholders and scope and planning leads to a project management mindset.
2. Articulate the value of OLM and Project Management to promote sustainable practices and standardizing project feedback.
3. Identify project management principles.
4. Develop a project brief for future use.