Mountain Home city council is considering an ordinance to regulate e-bikes and e-scooters, modeled after rules already in place in parts of Ada County, as neighbors and police raise concerns about rider safety.WATCH: What potent ial e-bike and e-scooter rules could look like in Mountain Home Mountain Home weighs potential e-bike and e-scooter rulesNeighbor Lacey McCafferty said she has noticed a sharp increase in e-bikes and e-scooters around town and is worried about how some riders are using them."This year has gotten, like, mass amounts of them around town, for sure," McCafferty said.McCafferty described a recent drive down American Legion Boulevard where she witnessed a young rider weaving between lanes."He was going from lane to lane, just back and forth, and he had almost hit the car next to us. It's terrifying," McCafferty said. "I don't think that they're safe, and the big groups of them running around is chaos.While McCafferty said she understands the appeal of e-bikes for teens, she wants safety education to be required for all riders."A class or a video that they can watch and educate themselves on e-bikes and e-scooters, because maybe if they're more educated, they'll think better, McCafferty said. I don't think they have enough education to be driving them, especially being so young.READ MORE | Garden City bans high-speed electric motorbikes and scooters from Greenbelt, parks and bike pathsIn a city council meeting earlier this month, Mountain Home police said that work is already underway."We have already tasked an officer with looking into creating some kind of training for this before the ordinances even came up. So that's already in the works," Interim Assistant Chief of Police Jake Dudley said.City leaders have discussed modeling a local ordinance after Boise's, including how different classes of e-bikes are treated, where riders are permitted to use them, and whether younger riders should be required to wear helmets.Interim Chief of Police Ty Larsen said unsafe riding behavior is already a visible problem."Downtown is a problem. The problem I'm seeing is people riding on the wrong side of the road. They're using the sidewalks, when they should be operating like a bike or a motorcycle, Larsen said. I think helmets should also be considered for anybody under the age of 18.Both police and neighbors said the goal is to get ahead of a potential tragedy."I don't think it's a matter of if, it's a matter of when we have some kind of injury or bad crash, Dudley said. I think we need to get ahead of it, and this is the right step.""My biggest fear would be them getting hurt, severely hurt," McCafferty said.The city is now working on a draft ordinance that will come before city council, though a timeline has not yet been set.This story was initially reported by a journalist and has been, in part, converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy. ...read more read less