We're not talking about responsible teens commuting to school. We're talking about kids — some barely old enough for high school — stunting through bike lanes, weaving onto sidewalks, and now apparently adding distracted driving to the mix. It's not a matter of if someone gets seriously hurt. It's when.

Let's be clear: e-bikes are a fantastic mode of transportation. They're efficient, they reduce car dependency, and they make hilly cities like San Francisco navigable without showing up everywhere drenched in sweat. For adults who use them responsibly, they're a net positive.

But handing a 14-year-old a motorized vehicle that hits 20+ mph with no licensing requirement, no training, and apparently no rules is a different story entirely. And when that kid is scrolling TikTok while barreling down the Embarcadero, we've got a parenting problem masquerading as a transit issue.

As one blunt Bay Area resident put it: "Why would you ever buy your kid an e-bike in the first place? Unless they have some actual disability or you live up an 800-foot hill, make the little fucker pedal like we did back in the dark ages."

Crude? Sure. Wrong? Not really.

Another local was even more succinct about whether parents would take notice: "They bought their kids an e-moto already — you think they're going to read this?"

The libertarian in us doesn't love the idea of more regulation. But personal freedom comes with personal responsibility, and minors — by definition — aren't fully equipped to bear that weight alone. That's what parents are for. If your kid can't be trusted to put the phone down while operating a vehicle that can seriously injure a pedestrian, maybe the e-bike stays in the garage until they can.

San Francisco doesn't need another layer of bureaucratic enforcement. It needs parents who set boundaries. The city's sidewalks — and the people walking on them — shouldn't be collateral damage of hands-off parenting.