[ad_1]
MOUNT PLEASANT — The city is planning to limit the usage of electric-assisted bicycles and ban them from sidewalks after a resident stated one killed her canine.
Lauren Alligood described the accident at a Might City Council assembly. Her husband was strolling Frieda, the couple’s miniature schnauzer, on a sidewalk outdoors the Heritage Village neighborhood off Mathis Ferry Street when two unsupervised 12-year-old boys sharing a single e-bike rode up behind them, she stated.
Alligood’s husband could not see or hear the bike approaching. The boys did not decelerate as they tried to move, hitting and killing Frieda, Alligood stated.
“To say we’re devastated and offended is an understatement,” she advised the 9 council members, urging them to place parameters across the burgeoning know-how.
Two months later, City Council appears poised to behave.
E-bikes have gotten more and more well-liked across the U.S.; Business Insider reported retail gross sales virtually quadrupled in a four-year interval, totaling $885.5 million in 2022.
E-bike regulation is basically left as much as state and native governments. When Alligood checked Mount Nice’s guidelines, she was dissatisfied to see a dearth.
The city’s code of ordinances devotes a complete chapter to bicycles — but it surely hasn’t been up to date since 1963. Chapter 73 makes no point out of e-bikes.
City Council on July 11 thought of an ordinance to repeal and exchange its present guidelines round bikes.
The proposed rules undertake federal legislation’s definition of an e-bike: a two- or three-wheeled car with most speeds of 20 mph. The bikes are outfitted with battery-powered motors to help the rider whereas they’re pedaling. Not like mopeds or bikes, an e-bike’s motor will lower off when its rider stops pedaling.
The brand new ordinance bans e-bikes on all sidewalks all through the city, regardless of the rider’s age. E-bikes will nonetheless be allowed on the street and on shared-use pathways like the Mount Pleasant Way project. Riders underneath 21 shall be required to put on a helmet and nobody can journey above 15 mph.
If handed, the ordinance shall be just like the town of Charleston’s, which bans e-bikes even on shared-use paths. In close by Isle of Palms, city council members just lately banned e-bikes all through the seaside neighborhood from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
The proposed ordinance would additionally introduce new parameters round nonmotorized bikes. Cyclists ages 13 and older are banned from using on sidewalks until they’re an grownup accompanying youngsters underneath 7, or if the adjoining street has a velocity restrict of 35 mph or extra.
Councilman Jake Rambo frightened the exceptions are too advanced for folks to know: “It simply looks as if slightly bit a lot,” he stated.
Rambo, a former faculty principal, additionally thought younger teenagers ought to be a part of the sidewalk exception. Many Moultrie Center College college students, as an illustration, experience their bikes alongside the busy Coleman Boulevard every morning and afternoon. Some middle-schoolers are as outdated as 14, he stated.
Different council members had been receptive to Rambo’s issues however appeared hesitant to fine-tune the ordinance’s language through the full council assembly.
The ordinance shall be despatched again to the Police, Judicial and Authorized Committee for additional dialogue earlier than its second studying, after which it turns into a part of the city code.
Mayor Will Haynie advised Rambo, who isn’t a committee member, to ship an inventory of his issues earlier than the subsequent assembly on Aug. 7.
City Council accepted the ordinance’s first studying. Rambo was the one member to vote in opposition to the movement, saying he did not agree with the ordinance in its present type.
If the present ordinance is in the end repealed, Mount Nice’s legislation enforcement officers will work to coach neighborhood members on the brand new guidelines, stated Councilman Carl Ritchie, the previous police chief.
Name Jocelyn Grzeszczak at 843-323-9175. Comply with her on Twitter at @jocgrz.
[ad_2]
