Glendora E-Bike Rules: Where to Ride and When to Walk

On August 15, 2026, Glendora's first full rewrite in years of the rules for e-bikes, e-scooters, skateboards, roller skates and ordinary bicycles took effect. The City Council introduced Ordinance No. 2098 on June 23 and voted unanimously that night to adopt its companion resolution. It adopted the ordinance on second reading at the July 14 meeting, and the ordinance took effect 30 days later. The designated-area restrictions only become enforceable once the required signs are posted. In its September 1 release, the City said it had recently finished installing them.

The companion document, Resolution CC 2026-36, reads more like a map than a ban. It doesn't restrict riding by street name. It restricts riding by the kind of surface you're on and, more and more, by the class of e-bike you own. A single Class 2 e-bike can be fully legal on a paved trail, have to be walked on a Village sidewalk, and be barred from a dirt trail in Glendora Wilderness Park, all in the same afternoon.

Six kinds of ground, six sets of rules

The resolution names six types of designated areas under Section 10.17.040 of the Municipal Code. Here they are side by side:

In the Village, the rule covers sidewalks, plazas, parkways and walkways, and riders "must dismount and walk." The resolution doesn't add a separate ban on riding in the Glendora Avenue roadway. On a Wednesday farmers market night, then, the restriction applies to the pedestrian space along those blocks. Anyone who has walked between the stalls and the Village restaurants on a market night already knows how crowded that space gets.

The parks rule names Finkbiner Park, Louie Pompei Memorial Sports Park, South Hills Park and Manooshian Park, and it extends to "all other City-owned parks and playgrounds." At Finkbiner, a family riding in for the October 16 Halloween Movie in the Park or the October 31 Halloween Carnival can stay on designated pathways. Once they reach the picnic areas and walkways, they walk.

The class number on your frame matters now

California sorts e-bikes into three classes, and Glendora's resolution relies on that system more than most residents might expect. The parks rule lets bicycles and Class 1 and Class 2 e-bikes use designated park pathways, which leaves out Class 3. The natural trails rule is stricter. Only Class 1 e-bikes and traditional bicycles are allowed on designated natural-surface trails in places like Glendora Wilderness Park and Gordon Mull Preserve. Class 2 and Class 3 e-bikes are banned there, along with e-scooters, motorized boards and electric motorcycles.

The ordinance also prohibits riding a Class 3 e-bike on any sidewalk or public off-road trail, and anywhere else state law or the chapter bars it. It separately bans modifications that push a device past its legal operating limits. The second rule ties back to the first. Under these rules, a bike's class decides which trails it can use, and a modified bike has stepped outside the class it was sold under.

Hikers in the foothills will see the effect of this section most clearly. Gordon Mull Preserve and the Wilderness Park trails stay open to bikes, but now only to bikes without a throttle and with pedal assist that cuts off at the Class 1 limit. If you're checking which foothill routes are open at all right now, our earlier rundown of what's actually open on Glendora's trails covers trail access. This ordinance adds a second question about what you're allowed to ride once you're there.

The school-hour window is narrower than it sounds

The school frontage rule covers sidewalks, parkways and pedestrian walkways within 100 feet in any direction of any public or private school frontage in the city. The resolution names Glendora High School, Goddard Middle School and Sandburg Middle School, and it includes all elementary schools.

The rule is limited in three ways. It applies only from one hour before to one hour after the regular school day. It covers sidewalks and walkways, not the street. Within that window, e-bikes and motorized devices are prohibited, while regular bicycles, skateboards and skates may keep moving at walking pace. So a student riding a traditional bike to Goddard can keep rolling slowly past the front of the school. A student on an e-bike has to get off for the last 100 feet.

What a citation costs, and what a class can replace

Beyond the location rules, Chapter 10.17 lists behavior that's banned anywhere in the city:

• Riding against traffic, or anywhere state law or posted signs prohibit
• Riding too fast for conditions, or swerving around stopped traffic or pedestrians
• Racing, stunts, wheelies, jumps and other hazardous moves
• Not slowing down and yielding to pedestrians
• Carrying a passenger on a device not built to carry one safely
• Riding unsafely while using a handheld phone or other communication device
• Placing ramps, wax, grease or lubricants on public improvements, or on private property without the owner's consent

Where no speed limit is posted, riders must keep to a "reasonable and prudent" speed. The resolution lets the City Manager or Chief of Police post maximum speeds on the sidewalks, trails and corridors it covers.

Violations are infractions, and the fines rise quickly. A first violation is $50. A second within 12 months is $100, and a third or later within 12 months is $200. Police can impound a device used in a violation, including an illegally modified device or one ridden under the influence. A device held more than 90 days is treated as abandoned. A parent or guardian with custody of a rider under 18 is jointly and severally liable for that minor's violation.

The Bicycle Safety Education and Diversion Program offers a way out of the fine. The Chief of Police or a designee may offer a cited rider a City-provided safety class instead of a fine, at their sole discretion. Completing the class can waive or reduce the fine, and minors may be required to attend with a parent. The City describes the program as free, with parent participation required for minors and partnerships with local schools. The completion certificate also matters if a minor's device has been impounded. Releasing the device to a responsible adult requires proof that the juvenile finished diversion, plus the City's release fee. The Glendora Police Department sets the program's eligibility, curriculum, attendance rules and procedures, so it's the place to ask about enrollment.

Police Captain Chris Stabio framed the department's goal this way in the City's release: "Our goal is not simply enforcement, it's creating safer streets, sidewalks, and public spaces for everyone."

The most open surface is the one being built out

Take the six categories together and one surface stands out. Urban paved shared-use trails allow everything the other five areas limit: Class 1 through 3 e-bikes, traditional bicycles, e-scooters and motorized boards, with only a duty to yield to pedestrians and follow posted speeds. The resolution doesn't name individual trails or include a map. It applies to "all urban paved shared-use trails" in the city.

That category is about to grow. The San Dimas Wash Trail's first phase is complete, from Louie Pompei to Sunflower Avenue and Gladstone Street. Phase 2 runs from Gladstone to Juanita Avenue, and Phase 3 continues from Juanita to Grand Avenue. The City's capital projects page lists the trail update as "June 2026 - Fall/Winter 2026." It doesn't give a completion date. A Little Dalton Wash Trail segment is planned from Loraine Avenue and the Colby Trail to Wabash Avenue at Finkbiner Park.

Those segments belong to the People Movement Project. Streetsblog Los Angeles reported in September 2026 that the project is fully funded at $21.4 million. It would build eight miles of greenways along all three of Glendora's flood control channels and two miles of multimodal improvements on Foothill Boulevard and Glendora Avenue, including the first protected intersection in the San Gabriel Valley. Construction on that larger package is expected to begin after 2027. A July 2026 state environmental notice describes the street work as new bikeways, a roundabout, protected intersections, signal changes and high-visibility crossings along about half a mile of Glendora Avenue and a mile and a half of Foothill Boulevard.

Read together, the ordinance and the project show a single plan. The city is moving fast devices off the sidewalks around the Village, schools, shopping centers and park picnic areas. At the same time, it's paying to build the paved corridors where those same devices are fully welcome. Today a rider who wants to avoid every restriction in Resolution CC 2026-36 has a short list of places to go. That list is scheduled to get much longer.

When people ask us how Glendora is changing block by block, the wash trails and the Foothill Boulevard corridor come up more and more. If you'd like to know how planned projects like these line up with your own street or a home you're considering, Maureen Haney and our team would be glad to walk through it with you. Request a personalized market consultation.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.