Motorcyclist Crashes on Olive Street to Avoid E-Bike Rider

Motorcyclist crashes on Olive Street in Santa Barbara on March 18, 2024 (Photo: Geo Duarte)

On Monday (March 18) at 7:21 p.m., a motorcycle crashed to avoid an e-bike at Olive an Figueroa Streets.

Early reports stated an E-Bike rider may have caused the operator of a motorcycle to lose control of a high-performance sports bike. This is per the motorcycle rider.

The bicyclist, who was not apparently on the scene after the crash, allegedly caused the motorcycle to swerve and then collide with parked cars on the left side of the street on Olive St. The motorcycle traveling north ended up coming to rest without the rider onboard more than a hundred feet ahead from the rider on the northern corner of the northbound lane of Olive just before Figueroa Streets.

After colliding with what appeared to be a parked, older model Geo Metro, thus, sideswiping that vehicle and removing it’s side side mirror and leaving dents and scratches in the process. The motorcyclist then surfed / flew over an older Honda sedan, cracking the front windshield and then landing behind the Honda, under what appeared to be an Acura RDX parked behind the second car.

The third car, the RDX’s front license plate came off and the MC rider was found by first responders partially under the front of that third car, the Acura RDX. The rider of the Pipers Moto Mobility KTM motorcycle was conscious and reported he came in contact, or almost came in contact with an E-Bike just down the block on Olive St.

Additionally, a nearby neighbor reported she no longer parks on Olive St. as there are often too many collisions and hit and runs. Plus, sideswiping accidents, occurring quite often on the narrow streets in her neighborhood.

Motorcyclist crashes on Olive Street in Santa Barbara on March 18, 2024 (Photo: Geo Duarte)
Motorcyclist crashes on Olive Street in Santa Barbara on March 18, 2024 (Photo: Geo Duarte)

Motorcyclist crashes on Olive Street in Santa Barbara on March 18, 2024 (Photo: Geo Duarte)

Geo Duarte

Written by Geo Duarte

Geo Duarte is a volunteer scanner reporter for edhat.com. More reports can be viewed on Geo's Instagram page @Xtek_Overload

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16 Comments

    • Dependent upon their highest speed. If they go as fast as a bicycle but just power assisted, not different from a bicycle. Probably apparent to those wanting insurance but best to qualify it. Yes, and they need a helmet requirement too!

  1. The brother on the motorcycle, has quite a bit Mir weight and power than the bicycle or E-Bike. I hate to see it, buy theE-Bikes ride pretty, how to say it without offending everyone, lets call it “fast and loose”. I also ride a street bike, and I’ve already decided that I’m not going to throw my bike down the street avoiding some out of control E-bike rider. Didn’t even stop to see if Mr. KTM guy was OK huh? Not good, little 2 wheeled brother. KTM Guy could have just leaned back and gassed it, which is probably what he should have done. I probably will if put in the same situation.

    • a whole lot of probablys and maybes going on here….and since you were not there and are only going off of…what third hand reports, i’d say that is pretty worthless. id be interested in seeing the collision report from SBPD.
      blame ebikes today. before that, everyone blamed skateboards.
      the rider is/supposed to be in full control of their vehicle, therefore this lays on the motorcycle driver. motorcycles and cars yield to pedestrians, animals, bikes, scooters, skateboards. to blame someone else for a guy slamming into cars and wrecking, wihtout being there and seeing it, is weird at best.

    • E-Bikes have a place on the roads. Currently, they are finding themselves moving on sidewalks, bike paths, where they do not belong. places where cars will always dominate in any collisions. Also, E-Bikes move at an predictable / unsuspected speed by drivers, often mis-judging their timing and perceptual arrival in “normal traffic.”

  2. Hard to blame anyone without being there but Olive is super narrow and should be driven with caution. That said, the motorcycle sliding more than a hundred feet uphill surely says something about the speed this guy was travelling.

  3. Narrow road with parked cars, a cyclist and a motorcycle. It’s really hard driving those roads in a car when there’s a cyclist wobbling alongside the parked cars, especially when they swerve into the car lane. Hard to tell who’s fault this is, but sharing the road can be costly.

    People are going to hate me, but maybe we make some of these narrower roads off limits to cyclists? Have them stick to the plenty of roads going the same direction that have wider lanes or dedicated bike lanes for their own protection. Those downtown streets are not wide enough for everything. Just a thought!

    • The city has put a lot of money into making safer bike routes, in many cases restricting where cars can go. But I still see bicyclists on the non-bike routes, even when the dedicated bike route is just one block over. So, yes, I think we need to forbid bicycles on certain streets (a few). Too many bicyclists are not making good choices on their own.

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