Sophomores Chun, Newman launch “Ride Safe, Ride Ready” Campaign

SAFETY THROUGH ENTERTAINMENT: Sophomores Newman (left) and Chun created a PSA for the “Ride Safe, Ride Ready” campaign, which focuses on educating kids and teens about e-bike safety. Chun and Newman have focused on social media as their preferred medium to raise awareness about their cause. Photo courtesy of @ebsafe via Instagram

By Sofia Williams

Managing Editor

Sophomores Alex Chun and Justin Newman launched a campaign entitled “Ride Safe, Ride Ready” to educate middle and high school students about proper safety and maintenance regarding e-bikes.

Chun and Newman first proposed the idea at a city council meeting in February. After the meeting, Mayor Hildy Stern and councilmember Joe Franklin offered their support. The Manhattan Beach Police Department and the City of Manhattan Beach are also involved in the initiative.

“After the [city council] meeting, we weren’t sure if anything would come of it, but the city was really enthusiastic about including us and making us part of the team,” said Newman. “We ended up meeting with Councilmember Joe Franklin, MB Police Captain Andrew Harrod, Sgt. Will Pereira, and Sgt. Scott Combs and instantly got to work.”

According to Chun, the reason he and Newman decided to focus their efforts on e-bike education is their prevalence among Manhattan Beach residents. As the number of people who have purchased e-bikes continues to rise, there is more possibility for severe injuries to occur on the road, according to Reuters.

“I think everyone knows at least one person who was injured on an e-bike,” said Chun. “The more bikes on the road, the greater chance there is for accidents. These new generations of e-bikes are faster, heavier, and have the potential to cause serious injury. This is an issue that is relevant to anyone at any age.”

Chun and Newman have focused on social media messaging to raise awareness about the initiative. The duo created a PSA video intended to be the first of an e-bike safety series. The videos are posted on the “Ride Safe, Ride Ready” Instagram and TikTok pages.

“We wanted to create a PSA that was short and sweet and got the message across in a creative way,” said Newman. “There are several ‘rules of the road’ but we felt that if we tried to get them all in one video, it would probably fall on deaf ears. It’s easier and stickier if we do one rule at a time, so that’s what we did.”

According to Chun and Newman, the target audience for the campaign is individuals aged 7 to 17, with a specific focus on middle schoolers. The two are working to expand the campaign to their audience by collaborating with the Los Angeles Junior Lifeguards to include e-bike safety briefings into the organization’s summer programs in the South Bay.

“I think most kids and teens aren’t aware of what the laws are pertaining to mobility devices like e-bikes and scooters,” said Newman. “Aside from ‘wear your helmet’ and instructions on how to ride the bike, there isn’t really information given on how to ride safely or how to keep your bike properly maintained.”

Chun and Newman are also working to expand their digital presence, according to Chun. They plan to expand the team working on the initiative to work create another PSA and other online content. According to Chun, Broadcast Journalism teacher Michael Hernandez has been working with the “Ride Safe, Ride Ready” team to create digital content.

“Mr. Hernandez has been a great behind-the-scenes advisor for ‘Ride Safe, Ride Ready,’ and we have been consulting him on creating additional content for the program as well as ways to extend the program,” said Chun.

Both Chun and Newman were motivated by personal experience when they decided to launch the initiative. According to Newman, when he learned that he needed to receive monthly tune-ups on his e-bike after taking it to get repaired for the first time, he realized that education that teens receive on e-bike accident prevention is inadequate. According to Chun, the main reason he became interested in e-bike safety was that his cousin got in an e-bike accident and broke his arm, sparking the realization that teens are usually not prepared to ride e-bikes on the road.

“Especially during the pandemic, there was an e-bike boom, and with it a rise in injuries and accidents,” said Chun. “When you ride an e-bike, nobody actually tells you what the rules of the road are. We thought that this was important information to share.”