The surge of electric bikes on streets and sidewalks has had an impact in the last two years.  These speedy little bikes and scooters have gained popularity among the students at the middle school. The amount of times I’ve seen a swarm of e-scooters almost get run down by a distracted driver is outstanding— there had to be something more to this than just transportation. 

Expecting the worst of middle schoolers, I walked to Starbucks right as the students were released from school for the day. Instantly, I spotted three electric scooters stacked against the concrete walls. I pulled out my phone and started taking pictures of the helmets dangling from the handlebars. 

A troop of kids emerged from the store. Charles, an eighth grader at Rosemont Ridge Middle School, approached and Landon and Keaton,  sixth graders, trailed at his side.

“Please don’t sell it on Facebook Marketplace, that’s mine,” Charles said.

In the evenings, when middle schoolers are let out, Salamo Road and the surrounding stores are flooded with students riding e-bikes and e-scooters. 

“My brother, he’s a junior now, I don’t know if you know him,” Keaton said. “He [has] had an electric bike since he was 13 [years old].” 

While steadily growing in popularity, e-bikes are still not allowed in certain areas, similar to skateboards.

“E-bikes are also really popular, but we are not allowed to bring them to school. Some people still do it,” Charles said. “They ride them up to the [West Linn Adult Community Center], and then walk down to school.” 

The scooters range in price, estimated by the group to be ranging from $100 at Costco to $1000 on online retailers, depending on their top speed.

“They’re pretty easy to control, and they’re pretty safe,” Charles said. 

Despite this claim, it seems that older generations have not entirely accepted the group and their bikes.

“The cops like us to be in the bike lane, because once I was riding on the sidewalk, and I honked my horn at this grandma because I didn’t want to hit her. But then she just started yelling at me,” one said. “One of my friends got the cops called on them once,” Landon said.  

Unlike skateboards, e-bikes and e-scooters have a motor which helps the user use less energy to travel, but their battery must be charged.

“They charge pretty fast, and they go far on one charge,” Charles said. “I’d say that about 40% of kids have them, but some don’t take them to school,” Landon said. “They are a lot of money, but they are definitely worth it.”

For Keaton, scootering to school is his preferred option. But it doesn’t come without some risk. 

“I don’t feel comfortable on the bus, but it’s kind of hard going down that big hill [on a scooter],” Keaton said. “My brother has done it before but my parents don’t want to let him every day, so he gets a ride with my neighbor.”

As expected, the middle schoolers did chime in with their own “brain rot” vocabulary. Since COVID-19 and the lack of regular school structure, it seems as though middle schoolers have only gotten less mature and more nonsensical.

“Wait, your brother gets a ride with Maddie? That’s so ‘rizzy,’” Landon said.

Ainsley, a seventh grader at Rosemont, also recognized that many of her peers ride electric scooters and bikes.

“[About] 70% of people [have them]. You go to school, Starbucks, I can go anywhere, like my friends’ houses,” Ainsley said. “There’s not a lot of people who know about them, because we all have them and all of them are different. I mean, most people have the model I have because it was on sale at Costco.” 

Personally, my experience of the whole electronic mobility craze has been negative. a few years ago, I tried a one-wheel, resulting in a feeling of my legs pulling apart like a medieval torture device. But while talking to the students, I learned that it is about more than just transportation— it is a freedom to connect with their peers outside of a learning environment. 

After COVID-19, where social distancing and online school took away the maturity and manners of a whole school generation, perhaps having an easy, legal, and reliable way to get around with friends is what middle schoolers need to recover.