Clear Choices, Safer Rides: How Know Your Ride Connects E-Bike Safety with Youth Prevention

By Divisha Arora, Skyline High School Junior; Founder of Know Your Ride; Vice Chair, TECH Youth Coalition

Know Your Ride and Influence the Choice working together to support youth-led prevention, healthy and safer choices, and safer riding conversations in the community. 

There is a moment before every ride when nothing has happened yet.

The helmet is still on the table. The phone is still in someone’s hand. The route has not been chosen. The group has not taken off. The bike has not reached speed. A friend has not said, “Come on, let’s go faster,” or “Just ride on the back,” or “It’s only a short ride.”
​
That moment may look ordinary. But it is where prevention begins.

At Influence the Choice, prevention has never been only about what young people avoid. It is about helping them build the confidence, awareness, and leadership to make healthier choices before pressure takes over. It is about teaching students that choices matter not only in the biggest moments, but also in the smaller ones that happen before anyone else may recognize the risk.

That same idea is at the heart of Know Your Ride.

Know Your Ride is a youth-led bike, e-bike, and e-moto safety initiative founded by Skyline High School student Divisha Arora to help families, students, schools, and communities better understand what they are riding, where they are riding, and what responsibilities come with it.
​
The mission is simple: Clear Rules. Safer Rides.

But behind that simple message is a larger prevention lesson. A safer ride often begins before the wheels move.

Riding Takes Judgment Before It Takes Speed

When people talk about bike and e-bike safety, the conversation often starts with helmets, traffic rules, speed, visibility, and where riders are allowed to go. Those things matter deeply.
But there is another part of the conversation that belongs here too: riding with a clear mind.

Alcohol, cannabis, and other substances can affect judgment, coordination, balance, reaction time, and the ability to recognize danger. Those are not small concerns when someone is operating a bike, e-bike, scooter, or e-moto in a shared space with cars, pedestrians, other cyclists, curbs, driveways, intersections, and changing road conditions.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that more than one-third of crashes resulting in a bicyclist’s death involve alcohol for the motor vehicle driver and/or the bicyclist. The CDC also notes that adolescents ages 10 to 14 have the highest rates of bicycle-related injuries treated in emergency departments.

NHTSA’s 2023 bicyclist and other cyclist fatality data also show why impairment must be part of the safety conversation. In fatal pedal cyclist traffic crashes that year, alcohol involvement was present among some riders, drivers, or both, including riders or drivers with blood alcohol concentrations at or above 0.08.

For young people, the issue becomes even more important because the adolescent brain is still developing in areas connected to planning, impulse control, and decision-making. Alcohol can make it harder for teens to sense danger, control impulses, and make healthy choices.

That is why substance use prevention belongs in the riding-safety conversation.

A rider needs balance. A rider needs judgment. A rider needs to notice what is changing around them. A rider needs to decide quickly when something is not safe. Substances make all of that harder. And on an e-bike or e-moto, where speed and acceleration can change the situation quickly, the cost of one impaired or impulsive decision can be much higher.

The New Questions Families Are Asking

For many families, bikes used to feel familiar. A child learned to balance, pedal, brake, and wear a helmet. The rules were not always perfect, but the basic idea felt understandable.

E-bikes and e-motos have changed that.

Today, a vehicle may look like a bicycle but accelerate quickly, include a throttle, reach higher speeds, or have settings that parents and riders do not fully understand. Some riders may not know what class their e-bike is. Some families may not know whether a bike has been modified or unlocked. Schools, cities, parks, and trails may all have different rules.
Even well-meaning parents can find themselves asking: What exactly did we buy? Where is this allowed? Is my child ready for this?

Those questions are not signs that families do not care.

They are signs that the environment changed quickly, and the information did not always reach people in a clear, usable way.

Know Your Ride was created to meet that gap with practical education, plain-language resources, and tools that help people pause before a purchase, before a route, before a ride, and before confusion turns into risk.

More Than a Transportation Issue

E-bike safety is often discussed as a traffic issue, a school issue, or a rule-enforcement issue. It is all of those things.
But it is also a youth wellness issue.

A young rider needs more than a working brake and a helmet. They need judgment. They need the confidence to say no when friends push for an unsafe choice. They need to understand that speed changes responsibility. They need to know that riding while distracted, impaired, angry, exhausted, or trying to impress someone can put themselves and others at risk. A student who has practiced making healthy choices in one setting is better prepared to make healthy choices in another.

That is where the connection to Influence the Choice becomes real.
ITC and the TECH Youth Coalition give students opportunities to build leadership skills, learn about healthy choices, and create change in their communities. TECH brings together middle and high school students from the Issaquah School District to develop those skills through prevention, advocacy, and youth voice.

For Know Your Ride, that prevention mindset shows up in the everyday moments riders actually face.

If alcohol, cannabis, or any other substance is part of the situation, the safest choice is not to ride and not to let a friend ride. When a group starts speeding up, one rider may need the confidence to slow down instead of following. When a phone buzzes, the safer choice is to leave it alone. When someone asks for a passenger ride on a bike not designed for two people, the responsible answer is no. When a friend seems impaired, distracted, angry, exhausted, or too upset to ride safely, leadership can mean helping them find another way home.

That is prevention in motion.

It is the same skill, carried into a different setting: pause, think clearly, understand the risk, and choose the option that protects yourself and the people around you.

From One Question to a Community Movement

Know Your Ride began with questions Divisha was hearing in the community:

What kind of bike is this? What rules apply? Where can it be ridden? What does Class 2 mean? Is this allowed on a trail? What should schools and parents know?

Instead of waiting for those questions to become someone else’s problem, she began building a resource that could make the answers easier to find.

Since then, Know Your Ride has grown into a community safety and family-readiness initiative reaching students, families, schools, cities, public-safety partners, health and transportation voices, local businesses, and community organizations. Its resources include parent and rider guides, school-facing materials, local rules and resource pages, safety modules, a “Check Your Bike” tool, and simple frameworks that help families better understand pedals, throttles, speeds, battery safety, routes, and rider responsibilities.

Know Your Ride has also moved beyond the website and into the community. Since it began, the initiative has participated in more than 25 community events, presentations, and outreach conversations, reached more than 5,000 community members through education and awareness efforts, and connected with more than 15 partners and supporters across education, civic leadership, public safety, health, transportation, and local business. Each number matters because each number represents conversations that may not have happened otherwise.

A parent stopping to ask about a bike. A student realizing that a throttle changes the way a ride starts. A school leader looking for clearer language. A neighbor learning how to raise concerns without blaming every rider. A community partner seeing that youth-led safety education can be practical, positive, and useful.

Know Your Ride has reached more than 5,000 community members through events, presentations, and outreach conversations since it began. 

A First-of-Its-Kind Awareness Moment

This September, Know Your Ride was honored to receive proclamations and public recognition from Eastside cities including Sammamish and Issaquah, along with statewide recognition from the Governor of Washington for Washington Bike, E-Bike & E-Moto Safety Awareness Week, September 7–13, 2026.

For Know Your Ride, this was a deeply meaningful milestone: a first-of-its-kind awareness effort focused on bringing bike, e-bike, and e-moto safety into one shared community prevention conversation.

But the recognition was not the finish line.

It was an opening.

A proclamation can help raise awareness. A city meeting can bring attention to an issue. A public moment can help families realize that they are not the only ones asking these questions.
But habits are built in daily life.

They are built when a rider checks the bike before leaving. They are built when a parent asks one more question before approving a route. They are built when a student chooses not to ride impaired. They are built when a friend speaks up before the group takes off.
That is where awareness becomes prevention.

SAFE 10: Helping Habits Last Beyond the Week

To help turn awareness into practice, Know Your Ride launched SAFE 10, a habit-building app challenge during Washington Bike, E-Bike & E-Moto Safety Awareness Week.
SAFE 10 is based on a simple idea: safety should not be something a rider hears once and forgets. It should become something a rider practices.

In the Know Your Ride - SAFE 10 app, eligible rides can earn Ride Credits. Every 10 Ride Credits completes one SAFE 10 achievement. SAFE 10 repeats, so after one completion, the next eligible ride begins progress toward the next SAFE 10. During an active sponsor campaign, a completed SAFE 10 may also unlock an available reward.
The first local campaign included Community Reward Partners Ben & Jerry’s Issaquah and Krispy Kreme Issaquah.
Early participation showed strong community engagement. Within the first three weeks of its September 7 launch, SAFE 10 reached 67 installations, 53 completed SAFE 10 achievements, and 837 safer rides recorded through the app.
The rewards helped make SAFE 10 exciting, and the early participation showed that young riders were willing to engage. But the heart of the challenge was never the coupon or the count. 
The real point is repetition.
That is also where SAFE 10 connects naturally with the prevention values behind Influence the Choice. Healthy choices become stronger when young people are not only warned about risk, but also encouraged to practice responsibility in positive, repeatable ways. SAFE 10 uses that idea by recognizing safer riding habits as they are being built, not after something goes wrong, but before those choices become urgent.
Start the ride intentionally. 
Keep the phone away.
Choose a safer pace. 
Complete a qualifying ride. 
Build the habit. 
Do it again.

That positive-reinforcement approach matters. Young people do not always respond best to fear, lectures, or punishment. They often respond to trust, challenge, encouragement, and the feeling that they are part of something bigger than themselves.

SAFE 10 does not frame young riders as the problem.
It invites them to be part of the solution.


Why This Belongs in the ITC Conversation

Influence the Choice’s work is rooted in the belief that young people need support, skills, and community connection before they face high-pressure moments.

Know Your Ride brings that same idea into a setting many students know well: the ride to school, the quick trip to a friend’s house, the neighborhood loop, the trail, the park, the after-school plan.

For a young person, prevention is not a separate lesson that stays in one room or one program. It becomes useful when it follows them into real life. It is there when they feel pressure to impress someone. It is there when they have to decide whether they are clear-headed enough to ride. It is there when the easier choice is to copy the group, and the better choice is to pause.
It is there when they realize that one responsible decision can protect not only themselves, but also the friend beside them, the pedestrian ahead of them, and the driver who may not see them in time. That is why this work fits so naturally with ITC.

Know Your Ride gives young people and families a practical safety issue they can see every day. ITC gives young people the prevention mindset to handle moments like this with confidence, clarity, and care.

Together, the message becomes stronger: safer communities are built before the emergency, before the pressure wins, and before a young person is left to figure it out alone.

A Shared Prevention Message

Know Your Ride and Influence the Choice approach prevention from the same belief: young people are stronger when they have clear information, trusted support, and the confidence to make healthy decisions before pressure takes over.
“The skills that help young people make healthy choices around substance use are the same skills that help them stay safe on the road: awareness, responsibility, confidence, and good judgment. Whether it’s choosing to wear a helmet, riding responsibly, or steering clear of alcohol and other drugs, every healthy decision build habits that protect both the individual and those around them. We’re proud to support efforts like Know Your Ride that encourage healthy decision-making.”
— Erica Vogt, Executive Director, Influence the Choice

The Community Has a Role

Young riders cannot carry this responsibility alone. Parents, caregivers, schools, cities, public safety leaders, health professionals, transportation partners, local businesses, and community organizations all have a role to play.
Parents can ask what kind of bike their child is riding, how fast it goes, whether it has been modified, where it will be used, and what their child will do if a friend wants to race, ride distracted, carry passengers, or ride after using substances.

Schools can help students understand that safer riding is part of campus safety, peer leadership, and community respect.

Community partners can help make the message visible in the places where families already gather.

And young people can lead from where they are.

Sometimes leadership looks like speaking at a city council meeting. Sometimes it looks like building an app or launching a campaign. Sometimes it looks like telling a friend, “I’m not riding if we’re doing that.”

That sentence can be prevention.

A Message to Young Riders

If you ride a bike, e-bike, scooter, or e-moto, your independence matters. Being able to get yourself somewhere can feel like freedom. But freedom lasts longer when it is protected by responsibility.

Do not ride impaired. 
Do not ride distracted. 
Do not let pressure make the decision for you.

Wear the helmet. Know the bike. Understand the route. Slow down when people are around. Speak up when something feels unsafe.

And if a friend is not in a condition to ride, help them find another way home.
You do not have to make a speech to be a leader.

Sometimes you just have to make the safer choice first.

The HABITS framework connects Know Your Ride’s safety education with the prevention mindset of building healthy, repeatable choices before risk shows up.

Before the Wheels Move

For schools and community partners, youth-led prevention works best when adults make room for it.

Students often see the risks, language, habits, and peer dynamics up close. When they are trusted as partners, they can help messages travel farther and land more honestly.
And for all of us, the small choices before the ride matter.

The decision to charge a battery safely matters. The decision to wear a helmet even for a short ride matters. The decision to slow down near others matters. The decision to stay substance-free and alert before riding matters. The decision to speak up for a friend matters.

Those choices may not always make headlines.
But they are the choices that prevent harm.

Know Your Ride’s message is “Clear Rules. Safer Rides.”
​
Influence the Choice’s work reminds us why that message matters.

When young people are given clear information, trusted support, and real opportunities to lead, they can help shape safer communities.
Not by waiting for something to go wrong.
Not by assuming someone else will handle it.
But by choosing earlier.
Before the speed. Before the pressure. Before the distraction. Before the substance. Before the ride.

That is where prevention begins.
And that is where young people can lead.

Learn more about Know Your Ride through the Know Your Ride website: https://www.knowyourride.org/.
Know Your Ride’s message is “Clear Rules. Safer Rides.”
Influence the Choice’s work reminds us why that message matters.
When young people are given clear information, trusted support, and real opportunities to lead, they can help shape safer communities, not by waiting for something to go wrong, but by choosing earlier.
Before the speed. Before the pressure. Before the distraction. Before the substance. Before the ride.
That is where prevention begins. And that is where young people can lead.