Inside Arvada's E-Bikes and Illegal Toy Vehicles

Friend of the show Chase Amos from the Arvada Police Department joins us to unpack the rise of illegal toy vehicles in Arvada. Chase helps clarify what can ride on streets, trails, and parks, and what cannot. We break down e‑bike classes, scooters, Low Speed Electric Vehicles, and why many mini motorcycles and pocket bikes aren’t street legal.

Please visit Arvada PD's E-Bikes and Unique Vehicles webpage for more information on which types of vehicles and devices are allowed and not allowed in Arvada. Please note: This is not official legal advice.

In this episode: 

• Why illegal toy vehicles are public safety issue
• Defining Class 1, 2, and 3 e‑bikes  
• What is not allowed on streets, and on trails and parks
• How Arvada PD is enforcing the use of illegal toy vehicles
• Trivia! Featuring Siren Says, the Colorado "Safety Stop" Law, and some history of the e-bike 

News and events:

• The City's fall leaf recycling drop-off runs Nov. 8 to 22, Monday through Saturday, at Stenger Sports Complex
• Work is scheduled to begin this week on the Alkire Street Trail project, requiring one-way lane closures 
• Marge Roberts Park is now open after a full park overhaul 
• Surveys are open now to provide feedback for the City's next three playground renovations: Pioneer Park, Ralston Cove Park and Terrace Park. Surveyes close Oct. 31. 

You can text us with the link at the top of the show notes or send us an email at podcast@arvada.org

Visit us at arvadaco.gov/podcast or email us at podcast@arvada.org.

Transcript

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Setting The Topic And Guest Intro

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to Inside Arvada, the official podcast of the City of Arvada. I'm one of your hosts, Sean Starr. Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode. Our topic is illegal toy vehicles. You've been seeing them all around town. And so we brought on Chase Amos, a public information officer with the Arvada Police Department to learn more about which of these devices are legal and which ones aren't legal. Chase has been with the Arvada Police Department for three years now, after a five-year tour in the U.S. Foreign Service, working in various roles in the U.S. Embassy in Israel. Prior to that, Chase was a San Diego County Deputy Sheriff working patrol for the city of Imperial Beach, California. And as always, I'm joined by my co-host today, Katie Patterson. Hi, Katie.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

Hey, Sean. Yeah, it's good to talk to Chase. I really just didn't realize how many different types of these like toy vehicles are out there these days. And, you know, like maybe many dart bikes were around when I was a kid, but not a lot else. And you definitely didn't see them out on roads. And so these a lot of these vehicles can just go really fast, really quickly, and you know, young kids riding them even sometimes. And so he has a lot of good information to share. And I think it's just, you know, a reminder of like we have a driving age and a test you have to take to be able to get a license and be on roads for a reason. And he digs into really kind of you know what the different types of um safety concerns we're seeing out there are hi Chase. Thanks for joining us today. So we had you on about a year ago and we were talking about kind of the police department operations more generally. Um, but just start us off with reminding us a little bit about what you do for Arvada PD.

SPEAKER_02 1:37

Aaron Powell Yeah, so I'm a public information officer uh with the Arvada Police Department and primarily focusing on external, internal communications. And in reality, what that looks like is uh working with the media a lot and also uh our website and the Department of Social Media.

SPEAKER_00 1:55

And uh so we wanted to have you on now again, because you were a great guest the first time, obviously, number one. But number two is uh you've been doing some campaigning, uh public information about illegal devices, toy vehicles, unusual vehicles, however you want to term it, um, that we're seeing around town in our trails, in our parks, and on streets. And so catch us up to speed about people um what's going on with these devices and what should parents know? Kind of what's the trend of this topic right now.

SPEAKER_02 2:22

Aaron Powell Sure. But first of all, am I the first repeat guest?

SPEAKER_00 2:25

No. I think you're the third repeat guest. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:29

We've had a couple. Am I like an official friend of the pod? You're the first friend of the pod. Yeah. I'll take that. Um yeah, we're obviously here to talk about um you know this rising trend that we're seeing around town. And you know, uh in my own personal life, I'm seeing it in other parts of the Denver metro area. Our officers are seeing it themselves. Um, but primarily we're hearing about it from residents. Um we've been getting a lot of complaints through dispatch, just traffic complaints, um, through Ask Arvada, and then through City Council as well. Um really what it all kind of boils down to is uh people you know improperly or illegally in some cases using a vehicle in a road, park, trail, et cetera, um, where it's not supposed to be.

SPEAKER_00 3:17

Before we kind of get into what's legal and what's not

Complaints Rise And Holiday Timing

SPEAKER_00 3:20

legal, can you kind of estimate like this trend? How much has it like increased and when did it start kind of really blowing up? It seems like over the past like six months or so.

SPEAKER_02 3:29

Yeah, it's kind of hard to pinpoint exact statistics with this. Um even in just kind of preparing our communications campaign, education campaign uh on the issue, it was difficult to find data, for example, you know, this time last year to now, um, because of the way the complaints come in, um, just there's no great way to search that data in our system. So a lot of it's uh anecdotal. Um and then when we did start tracking it earlier this summer, um, we did, you know, regardless of if it was a big increase or not, it seemed like a big issue, at least to our community members, and something that we wanted to address. So I'd say beginning in May, May or so this year. Um, and especially with kids being out of school, uh, we started becoming inundated with some of these complaints. I think it's over a couple hundred kind of at this point since the beginning of summer. Um, so it's something that we really realized that we needed to do something about.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

Aaron Powell Yeah, it does seem like it reached a tipping point here recently to where like you kind of see them here and there over the past couple of years, but really now they're they're everywhere. And so we wanted to also do it this time of year because you know, holidays are coming up, so we want to inform some parents uh maybe you know what they could buy for their kids and what they should avoid because they're not street legal.

unknown 4:45

Aaron Powell Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:46

So we're also hoping to raise awareness with the community so that you know at a holiday shopping season, uh you're not going out and buying something for your kid that they're gonna be really happy about and then come to find out they can't ride it anywhere. So uh just kind of little extra information when you go to do your shopping and make sure that you know you know what you're buying and it's gonna be able to be used in the way you want to.

SPEAKER_00 5:09

Yeah. And you can include that in your letter to Santa too, be like, I want this sort of class one rebike. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:15

So we're gonna start with kind of talking through what is legal and where. And um, I guess I'll just add to that caveat too that like this is all out of like helping make sure kids and everyone is safe on our roads. Roads have full full-sized vehicles on them and people going fast. And these vehicles can get really fast. And so I think it's just important to like kind of caveat our whole conversation with like really the goal here is like education and safety

What’s Legal: E‑Bikes, Scooters, LSEVs

SPEAKER_01 5:45

and um helping keep our community safe. So um, with that, let's start with what things are legal. So motor vehicles, obviously, um e-bikes that are class one and two, and then um electric scooters, low-powered scooters, and then low-speed electric vehicles, which that's maybe the most confusing one for me. Can you kind of exp walk through each of those for us and and what they are?

SPEAKER_02 6:07

Yeah, definitely. So it also to start, it's very difficult. This was a very difficult project for you know anybody to kind of tackle. Um because the uh technology that we're seeing out on the streets uh is different in some cases than what we see in law. And you know, law just doesn't always keep up with developing technology. And this is kind of the perfect example where a lot of times we're seeing something and we're looking at, okay, by law, what is it? And if it's not addressed somewhere in the law, we have to kind of make a judgment call about where it can be used, where it can't be used, um, to the best of our ability based off of everything in front of us. Um so yeah, to your point, motor vehicles, think of you know, your cars, uh typical thing you see on the street that you know adults drive, have to be registered, insured, properly equipped, all of that. Um that's not what we're talking about today. Uh but e-bikes, um, as you mentioned, there are three classes, class one, two, and three. In that definition, an e-bike has to have an electrical assist motor of 750 or less watts to be classified as an e-bike. So this is another issue where a lot of times someone will refer to something as an e-bike, but by definition it is not because it exceeds that uh power limit. So with uh class one, class one and two uh both go up to 20 miles per hour. With a class one, the motor is uh uh assist only, so the rider has to be pedaling to get that benefit from the electric motor. With a class two, it has essentially a throttle and you don't have to pedal at all to get power from the motor. It gets a little confusing because with the class three, you would think, okay, it's probably faster and I don't have to pedal. Sort of kinda. It is faster, they go up to 28 miles per hour. But uh more similar to a class one, you have to be pedaling to get the assist from that motor. Um with class one and two e-bikes, uh basically anybody can ride. There's no age or licensing requirements with them. Uh however, with a class three, you have to be at least sixteen. And if you are under eighteen, you have to be wearing a helmet, whether you're the rider or in some cases a passenger, uh, because you can't put multiple people on some of these e-bikes. Uh if that wasn't enough information, let's continue to electric scooters. Uh so when you know you think of your lime bird rentals that irritate people for a whole other reason that we don't have to get into today. Um those are uh you know exactly what they look like, but they have handlebars, they weigh less than 100 pounds, and similar to class one and two e-bikes, they have a maximum speed of 20 miles per hour. Now, not to confuse people even more, but low-powered scooters, not electric scooters. Um however, a low-powered scooter can be electric. Right. Most are gas, but some are electric, uh, but they're not electric scooters, let's be clear. Uh they have an engine that is 50cc or less if it's gas powered, or four thousand less than four thousand seven hundred seventy-six watts of power if it's electric. With those, uh, it's a little bit different because you don't have to have a uh motorcycle endorsement on a license, uh, but they do need to be registered with the state and insured. And the registration process on that is a little bit different. It's not like you know, your license plate and uh you know year and month tabs. Uh it's a three-year registration sticker. I believe three years, don't quote me on that, but um it is a little bit different, but it still has to be registered with the state.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

Aaron Ross Powell And this is like a moped. Like kind of colloquially, we tend to call these mopeds, Vespa's, that sort of thing. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 10:14

Uh and then finally, low-speed electric vehicles uh look like small cars or big golf carts, um, and they are electric. They are allowed on uh city streets with a speed limit of 35 miles an hour or less, uh, and need to be properly equipped, driven by a licensed driver, all of that.

SPEAKER_00 10:35

And yeah, so just to kind of clarify, the most of the devices I feel like we're seeing that are legal are the class one and two e-bikes, and those can be ridden just anywhere a regular bicycle can be ridden. So on our trails, um in our streets, if you're you know being saved, you can ride those e-bikes, same with the electric scooters. And then when you get into the more like the low-speed vehicles like you're talking about, those can be driven on on streets, and obviously the motor vehicles can be driven on streets

Where Each Device Can And Can’t Go

SPEAKER_00 11:00

too.

SPEAKER_02 11:00

Aaron Powell Yeah. For everything we just talked about, um yeah. Uh class one or two e-bike can go anywhere a regular bike can go. Uh class three e-bikes can't go on trails. Um and you're with your class one and two, you have to abide by the trail speed limit of 15 miles per hour, even though your bike can do 20. Um and then, of course, uh a low-powered scooter, low-speed electric vehicle not allowed in the parks or trails.

SPEAKER_00 11:25

Aaron Powell Yeah. Um done on uh remembering some of those uh very specific numbers on the Trevor Burrus.

SPEAKER_02 11:31

It's been my life for a couple weeks. So I have yeah, I've absorbed some of it, but yeah, it's incredibly uh dense and a lot to keep track of.

SPEAKER_00 11:38

Yeah, and you have a great webpage that we can link to that breaks this all down. And so if you're trying to like rewind or remember exactly what wattage or power each device can be up to, uh don't worry, you can uh just check the link in the show notes. All right, so uh let's get into uh the things that aren't allowed, Mr. Fun Police. Uh what should people avoid? What can they not uh write around?

SPEAKER_02 12:00

So uh and this is unfortunately these are the most most of the vehicles we are receiving complaints about and are educating folks on and doing enforcement on uh fall into one of these two categories. It's either an off-highway vehicle or a toy vehicle. And in either case, with very, very few exceptions that we can talk about, um, are not allowed on a road, sidewalk, uh park, trail. Essentially they can only be used on private property.

SPEAKER_00 12:33

And so we're talking about um like you know, vehicles that are designed for off-road dirt, like ATVs, dirt bikes, um, side-by-sides, those things all fall under the uh design for dirt category.

SPEAKER_02 12:46

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 12:47

And then we also have um toy vehicles. I feel like these

Off‑Highway And Toy Vehicles Explained

SPEAKER_00 12:50

are the ones that are becoming more and more popular, like your little toy uh motorcycle, electric motorcycle, um, go peds, mini motorcycles. I think you described it uh recently of like if it if it looks like a larger vehicle but it's smaller, it's not legal, probably. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_02 13:07

Yeah, that's probably a toy vehicle at that point. Aaron Powell And I should clarify: with uh off-highway vehicles, obviously they can also be used in approved open areas that are public land. But if we're talking just within the city of Arvada, uh there is nowhere that I know of that is public land in the city of Arvada where an off-highway vehicle can be used.

SPEAKER_00 13:28

And then uh golf carts also. You mentioned like if it's uh if it's a low-speed vehicle, it could be a golf cart and if it's registered, but most for the most part, almost entirely all golf carts, golf cars cannot be used on roads or trails or sidewalks.

SPEAKER_02 13:41

Yeah. And I trip myself up on this all the time because I think it's an annoying definition. Uh but golf cars, C-A-R-S as defined by Colorado law, um, but we all call them golf carts, are not allowed on city streets, trails, sidewalks, all that except for on the golf course. Um in some cases, if the state registers your golf cart as a low-speed electric vehicle, that's what it now is. Even if to us it looks like a golf cart, if the state has said nope, that's a low-speed electric vehicle, then you're able to use it in the same way that you can another LSEV.

SPEAKER_01 14:20

And that's true of some people have their dirt bikes registered too. You see that from time to time. It's kind of a similar concept.

SPEAKER_02 14:26

Yeah, same thing. Like by and large, a dirt bike, an ATV, a side-by-side is not going to be street legal. But if you have registered it with the state and you are it's registered, insured, properly equipped to be on the street, driven by a licensed driver with a proper endorsement if it's a dirt bike, um, then yeah, that can be legal. But you know, again, to the point of this whole conversation, we're not seeing complaints about people riding a dirt bike legally.

SPEAKER_01 14:55

Right.

SPEAKER_02 14:56

Um So I know a lot of people get have gotten upset with us when we talk about just them all being outright illegal on the street. Um we do know there are some exceptions and we're not trying to come after those legally registered and ridden dirt bikes.

unknown 15:09

Right.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

So um good segue, how is the police department working on enforcing these illegal toy vehicles?

SPEAKER_02 15:17

So since we kind of launched this education campaign six, eight weeks ago. Um before that, we had started educating uh the public that we came into contact with. So especially during the summer when our SROs were out of school, they were working in the parks, on trails, um contacting kids to see, hey, are you riding a bike that you're legally able to and in a way that is safe? Um so there's a lot of education going on then and a lot of enforcement. In a lot of cases, kids were on you know completely illegal uh vehicles or riding very dangerously unsafe, causing potential harm to themselves or others. Um so enforcement did take place early in the summer as well.

SPEAKER_00 16:02

Aaron Ross Powell Why are these toy vehicles illegal? I mean, uh can't kids just be kids? I mean, what's the risk that's uh being posed for um from a safety lens?

SPEAKER_02 16:11

Aaron Powell Well, I mean, to your point earlier, a lot of these are smaller versions of a larger vehicle. Um for starters, they don't uh uh they don't have the proper safety equipment. They are not going to be seen on the road because they are so small in the case of some of these pocket bikes. Um they are still able to go fast enough that you can really injure harm yourself. Uh and yeah, they don't fit any of the definitions of vehicles under Colorado state law that are approved and primarily designed to be on the street.

unknown 16:42

Aaron Ross Powell Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:43

I mean, at the end of the day, you know, you work in public safety, right? We're looking out for the best interests of our community, right? And so uh I feel like we wouldn't be doing your job if you were not trying to enforce these rules and and you know make sure that people are being safe and kids are being safe. So absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 17:00

Yeah, sorry. I was thinking about like as a kid, I haven't you know ride my bike everywhere and it could only go so fast. And now you're talking about things that aren't equipped safe with the safety

Enforcement And Why Safety Comes First

SPEAKER_01 17:10

mechanisms, that's a good point, and just go faster, quicker. Right. Like I have to manually pedal a bike to get going that fast. I didn't have anything with a throttle on to get me going 25, 30 miles an hour at 10 years old. Like my ability to I don't know that my coordination at 10 was good enough to to be doing that without any, you know, in a safe environment too, right? You're just you never know when a car is going to turn that corner or um you know, some person is, you know, walking their dog that whatever. There's so many things that can can go wrong and just so many factors in those settings.

SPEAKER_00 17:44

Aaron Powell To that point, like as a father of a six-year-old, like I wouldn't want him going even sometimes on his bike, I'm like, eh, that's a little too fast. Like I wouldn't want him to be able to go any faster than he's able to power himself. And so yeah, there's no registration, there's no test for any of these toy vehicles to ensure that they can operate them safely. There's no often lights or blinkers or taillights or anything like that. So um yeah, we're just trying to keep people safe out there. And I'm sure you've seen some or heard some incidents already, you know, um, with some children getting into some accidents, and we just want to avoid that as best we can.

SPEAKER_02 18:18

Yeah, I mean not to not to bring the mood down, but a couple weeks ago we had uh three 13-year-olds that were on electric dirt bikes. Um there were they were doubled up on one, so it was three kids on two uh dirt bikes. Um riding around town, they ran a stop sign. The uh first kid up front got through okay, but the second bike that had the two other kids on it didn't. And they crashed into a car that was passing by. Um and truly it was it was their fault. They one, they shouldn't have been on these on the street, and they ran a stop sign. Um that's another component of all this where kids certainly probably don't realize that parents should that if you are putting even on a class two e-bike, if you're putting a 13-year-old on a class two e-bike that can do 20 miles an hour and saying, okay, yeah, it's fine, go go run run around town, we hope that there's education going along without safely riding amongst cars. I don't think I would have been able to do that at 13 very responsibly or safely. And um, you know, I I guess luckily I didn't have this technology available to me, or who knows what might happen. Um but in this case with the the 13-year-olds on these electric dirt bikes, um, one was severely injured, fractured his neck, and then you know, later in the investigation, we're looking at what they were riding. They were riding 2,000 watt electric dirt bikes that were capable of going up to 37 miles an hour.

SPEAKER_00 19:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:53

Um something a 13-year-old, you know, if they're on a, you know, in a safe environment on a track, sure, that might

A Crash Story And Power Limits

SPEAKER_02 20:00

be you know prudent, that might be okay. Um but it's certainly not a place not not a person or a thing that should be on our road at that time.

SPEAKER_00 20:10

Yeah. I mean, and then if you're thinking about a trail user, right? And if you're just kind of walking along and you one of these like 30 mile an hour electric motorcycles comes whizzing by, like that's a safety issue for the the pedestrians at that point, too.

SPEAKER_01 20:20

So yeah, we get that just with e-bikes, right? Like just the 15, 20 mile an hour e-bike can be um disconcerting for somebody, let alone something that's way more in. Yeah. Um okay. Well, not to totally switch gears, but it's also fall and our days are getting shorter, our seasons are changing, so it gets dark earlier. And so um kind of in line with this, but also with all bike ped kind of safety, we can um there's you know a lot of data and statistics out there that show that often incidents between drivers and cyclists or pedestrians increase this time of year as it gets darker earlier. And so what reminders or warnings should we remind people of?

unknown 20:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:58

I mean, like you mentioned with uh daylight saving time, um, yeah, studies show that crashes tend to increase for a week following the change. Uh so it takes a while for everybody to kind of adjust, especially that first day. Uh so just heading into that, looking forward, um, just you know, give yourself that extra awareness, kind of realize that, hey, this is affecting me, but if I'm on a bike, it's probably also affecting every other driver on the road. So just be extra cautious. Um be aware of your surroundings, uh, obviously all the normal stuff. Hopefully you're wearing a helmet. If you are riding after dark, you need a headlight on your bike or your e-bike, uh, and a red reflector on the rear.

SPEAKER_01 21:42

And probably best practice to be yourself also kind of reflective, right?

SPEAKER_02 21:47

Yeah. I mean if you if you can go like full high viz pants, jacket, vest, great. I know most people probably aren't going to do that, but yeah, please just don't go out ride your bike after dark in all black. Don't do that.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Yeah, I know I'm even just like walking my dog at night now, and I've got my handy headlamp, if nothing else. Uh because I have a lot of black outer layers, which isn't great. But I'm on the sidewalk at least, you know, and looking both ways. But um I can kind of avoid the issues. But um, yeah, good reminders.

SPEAKER_00 22:19

Aaron Powell Got me thinking about 4:30 sunsets and oh, that's depressing. It is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:25

It's awful when you go to work and it's dark and you go home and it's dark and you just miss the whole day.

SPEAKER_00 22:29

Aaron Powell Yeah. Um anyway, so before we move on to trivia, we wanted to provide one last opportunity to um clear up any misconceptions, maybe just kind of reiterate uh the message that we want folks to get out of uh today's interview.

SPEAKER_02 22:43

Yeah, thanks. I mean, uh just back to yeah, I get it in some ways people think we're being the fun police, but it is really just all about protecting protecting everybody in our community, um, especially some of these incidents we're seeing are involving kids that are 10, 11, 12, 13, um and suffering

Fall Visibility And Night Riding Basics

SPEAKER_02 23:00

some really, you know, really bad injuries, and it's not not something anybody wants to deal with, especially if just on the front end a little education and awareness of what what you can and can't do might have prevented that. So that's our goal is to keep everybody safe. Um, same thing on our trails. You mentioned people whizzing behind e-bikes. Like, please respect the speed limit, be courteous on the trail, give someone a heads up if you're coming up behind them and you know, maybe they don't hear you. Um we just don't want to see any more people get injured from these sorts of vehicles.

SPEAKER_00 23:32

Yeah, absolutely. I always think of when I'm in those like highly popular areas of the trails, it's like a good idea to kind of maybe take the headphones out too, just uh as I'm passing people or vice versa. If you know, I'm gonna know I'm gonna be past, you won't be able to hear if you have the headphones in. So totally. All right. Uh we have nixed the lightning round in favor of trivia. So we've got three trivia questions here for you, friend of the pod, Chase Amosuretti. If you know the answer right away, we're gonna let the other one guess, just because it's kind of more fun than win. All right, question number one. This kind of mix of e-bikes and public safety. Uh what is the Colorado safety stop law?

SPEAKER_01 24:08

Oh, I know this.

SPEAKER_00 24:09

I figured.

SPEAKER_01 24:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:11

I have no idea.

SPEAKER_00 24:13

Maybe I know what it is, just not by the Trevor Burrus. I guess I should have come up with some multiple choice. I do have the multiple choice.

SPEAKER_01 24:18

Safety stop is pretty much what it's colloquial known as. It's Colorado Safety Stop Law because it's Colorado, but it's originally the Idaho Safety Stop was the first state to do this. I know everything about it clearly. Um it's also in our uh uh October, November Arvada report right now. Um page 10-ish. Um so if you're a cyclist or you know, low-powered electric type thing, um then when you come up to a stop sign, you can treat it like a yield sign. So as long as the intersection is clear, you can pass through that intersection to safely get, and the idea is to safely get um cyclists out of conflict zones more quickly. Um and so then when you're at a stop light, if there's no if it's a red light and there's no oncoming traffic, um you can go through the you can treat it like a stop sign, essentially.

SPEAKER_02 25:08

Nuclear I knew what that was. I just didn't know that it was called then.

SPEAKER_01 25:11

I was like, I bet you're gonna know this. Definitely you need the yield and the stop. And you are at fault if you know you get hit. Not that anyone would want that, but um, it's not gonna be the oncoming traffic's fault because the yield is the idea that the person with the right of way you know has the right of way and you're yield you're stopping if there's traffic.

SPEAKER_02 25:34

Trevor Burrus, Jr.: And those are difficult because I think a lot of people just think, oh, I'm on a I'm on a bike, I don't have to stop, I'm just gonna blow through. And obviously that's not what it is.

SPEAKER_00 25:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:44

And I you see that happen too sometimes. It's scary when you're the vehicle.

SPEAKER_00 25:47

Yeah, definitely. Uh all right. We do have multiple choice for the next two questions. Okay. All right. The Arvada Police Department has a vintage modified Volkswagen Beetle that is used to teach kids about public safety. Probably seen it out

Courtesy On Trails And Core Message

SPEAKER_00 26:00

at events. I know it's been at the Kite Festival, probably like Avati Fire Safety Day. What is the name of the car? Is it the safety bug? Is it Siren Says, or is it the badge buggy?

SPEAKER_02 26:11

Obviously, I know, so I'll give it to Kate.

SPEAKER_01 26:13

I'm going with the badge buggy. It's not the buggy. Is it A?

SPEAKER_00 26:16

It is not the badge buggy.

SPEAKER_02 26:17

Siren Says.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

It is Siren Says.

SPEAKER_01 26:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 26:22

So Siren Says was an idea from uh late Arvada police officer uh Edward McCarthy, who got the idea from the movie back in like the uh 70s or 80s, The Love Bug. And so it had like the big eyelashes and like uh it was all modeled after that movie and the character in that movie. Um the funny part was McCarthy apparently was a rather large man, and so it was uh kind of ironic for him to fit inside this sort of smaller uh vehicle. And McCarthy was a well-known figure in the Airvada community for his commitment to public safety. He was actually even known as the lollipop cop because he always kept Jolly Ranchers on him to hand out to kids. Um and in 1982, the year he retired, he even received the National Police Officer of the Year Award.

SPEAKER_02 27:02

So we still hear people on social media or in person. Um everybody has something good to say about McCarthy. Uh the funny thing about the bug, though, is it's still in summer somewhere I saw it's still like in our fleet on paper.

Trivia: Safety Stop, Siren Says, E‑Bike History

SPEAKER_02 27:20

Uh so it's the oldest vehicle in our fleet because it's uh I think a 68 maybe.

SPEAKER_00 27:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:25

Um but it's just funny when you're looking at like you know a spreadsheet of like years of vehicles and just 1968 pops up there.

SPEAKER_00 27:32

Yeah. It's probably oldest by long. It's uh yeah, I'd see if we can include a photo maybe in the show notes or like one of the reels, but uh it's been kind of remade over the years, but it was interesting to find the original one in one of the Arvada history books that I pulled that information from. So three. Obviously e-bikes have exploded in popularity recently, but what decade was the e-bike invented? Was it the 1890s, the nineteen sixties, or the nineteen eighties? 1890s, 1960s, or 1980s.

SPEAKER_01 28:09

I'm going with 1890s. Uh I want to go sixties.

SPEAKER_00 28:13

What?

SPEAKER_01 28:14

Yeah, so far off, I was like, it's probably right.

SPEAKER_00 28:16

December 31st, 1895, Ogden Bolton Jr. was granted the first patent for a battery-powered bicycle. Um but it was like almost 100 years later, that 1989, a Swiss engineer developed what is the more sort of modern pedal assist e-bike. But uh yeah, back then, the 1890s, they were uh trying to come up with the biggest thing.

SPEAKER_02 28:38

I need to like find a history book probably and go back to see how they were dealing with these problems in 1890. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:45

It is uh wild if you flip through old Arvada reports. A lot of the same issues that we're still dealing with today. Absolutely. All right, we have a bonus question. How many watts equals one horsepower?

SPEAKER_01 28:59

Wrong person to ask this question.

SPEAKER_02 29:06

I want to say a hundred or a thousand, but I was gonna guess a thousand. I don't know. Either way.

SPEAKER_00 29:11

So seven hundred and fifty, which is about the equivalent of an e-bike. So an e-bike is one horsepower. Anything above that really isn't an e-bike anymore. It's an illegal toy vehicle.

unknown 29:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:24

All right. That wraps up trivia and our interview today. Thank you so much, Chase.

SPEAKER_02 29:28

Thanks. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:33

As a reminder, we love to hear from our listeners. You can text us with the link at the top of the show notes or send us an email at podcast at arvata.org. We love your questions and feedback and episode ideas or what you want to learn more from Chase about. Um and then news and events going on coming up soon. The uh annual leaf recycling drop-off event runs November 8th through the 22nd. And the each day will be 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Saturday, closed Sundays at Stanger. Sports complex. That event is free and a part of the recycling and waste hauling program that the city runs for all residents. Just make sure to bring proof of residency and be prepared to dump out your leaves into the leaf piles. And then a project that has been in the works for several years now is finally getting to construction. The Alkyr Street Trail Project is scheduled to begin this week. And that project is constructing a detached trail on the west side of Alkyr Street between 80th and 72nd, 80th and 78th Avenues. And so there will be lane closures with alternating one-way traffic with flaggers directing the traffic during that project. And it's expected to take somewhere from six to nine months of construction. So more info we'll link in the show notes at at arvataco.gov slash alkyrstreet if you want to learn more about that.

SPEAKER_00 30:56

Yeah, in case you haven't heard, uh the Marge Roberts Park reopening occurred earlier this month on October 7th. And so that uh park overhaul project is complete, and that park is now open to the public. It includes a new basketball court, new walking pass, a

Community News, Events, And Closing

SPEAKER_00 31:10

new playground, and a new nature play area. It's located off Miller Street, uh right across from Let's Sports Complex. To learn more about that park, you can visit our radico.gov slash margeroberts. And we are looking forward to our uh 2026 playground renovations. We have three parks that'll have new playgrounds, and the first step in that process is hearing from the community what sort of equipment and themes they want incorporated in these new playgrounds. The three parks that will have new playgrounds are Ralston Cove, Terrace Park, and Pioneer Park. We'll link to each of those project pages in the show notes so you can take that survey to provide your feedback. Those surveys do close here soon on October 31st, so go ahead and take those before the month is over. Thank you once again to our guest, Chase Amos from the Arvada Police Department. Be sure to catch our next episode with the city's housing manager, Carrie Espinoza. Today's podcast was recorded and edited by Arvada Media Services, and today's fun fact is that sales of e-bikes in the United States increased by 72% alone in 2020.