Scooter collision in El Cerrito highlights need for Ohlone Greenway improvements
on October 29, 2026
Advocates are pushing for more stop signs and other improvements to El Cerrito’s Ohlone Greenway to protect users after two children on an e-scooter were hit by a car last week at the Potrero Avenue crossing.
The accident on Oct. 21 came as El Cerrito police crack down on electric motorcycles on streets, sidewalks, and pathways. Fearing such an accident, safety advocates had alerted the city in an April letter that “someone is going to be seriously hurt or killed” on the Greenway.
“I really don’t want someone to be killed for the city to just do some really common sense things: to make the path safer at the intersections where cars and people are intersecting,” said Janet Byron, co-founder of El Cerrito/Richmond Annex Walk & Roll, the advocacy group that wrote the letter.
The children were riding a Kukurin G4 e-scooter that could go up to 43 mph. In California, drivers using this motorized scooter must be at least 16 years old, have a driver’s license and wear a helmet. According to police, the riders in the collision had neither.
El Cerrito police did not say how old the children were, only that they were underaged.
“The boys suffered various injuries to their head, neck, back, and legs which were not considered life threatening,” wrote Captain Lauren Caputo in an email.
In a Nixle message to the community, police said the children were operating the scooter illegally, did not stop for a stop sign and veered into the car’s path. An eyewitness told police the scooter was traveling at high speed and that the car driver attempted to stop but could not.
Police have seized four illegal electric motorcycles this month in their enforcement campaign, which they say will be expanded to include unlawful and underage operators. Caputo said Ohlone Greenway walkers and riders should be more respectful of each other, and that parents should educate themselves on the law before buying electric scooters for their children.
“This is just another example of why we are doing what we’re doing,” said Caputo.
Push for more stop signs
Byron supports the Police Department’s expanded enforcement of electric motorcycles but said more changes are needed to make the greenway safer. She and other advocates propose stop signs at every intersection on the Greenway, and green paint across the streets to demarcate where people might cross.
“If there had been stop signs for drivers at that intersection,” Byron said, the children might not have been hit.
For most major streets on the greenway, there are stop signs for walkers and cyclists, but not for drivers. Neighboring Albany has stop signs at every intersection. Although the speed limit on the Greenway is 15 mph, there are no visible speed limit signs.
Bill Wood, a member of Walk & Roll, says that when the rules of the road and signage don’t line up, catastrophic accidents like this can occur. He helped create a report with Walk & Roll that points out how giving cars the right-of-way on the Greenway does not align with the city’s transportation goals and poses a danger to bikers and walkers.
“I’m not saying active transportation users deserve no blame, but I think the City Council and city engineers are the most culpable parties because they refuse to change their cities to deal with the realities of a changing transportation landscape,” Woods wrote in an email.
Councilmember William Ktsanes said the city should design the Greenway around how people actually ride, not how they’re supposed to ride.
“Ideally, bicyclists should always stop at stop signs and wear helmets, but we all know that they often do not,” Ktsanes said in an email to Richmond Confidential. “The consequence should not be severe injuries or death. We need to be realistic about people’s habits and respond accordingly.”
(Top photo from the scooter accident, courtesy of El Cerrito police)
(This story was updated to correct the spelling of Bill Wood’s name.)
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