“This is not my intent to be a sixth Councilman up here,” Andy Dance, the former school board member, current chair of the County Commission and–who knows–future mayor of Palm Coast, told the Palm Coast City Council last night as the council readied to enact the city’s ebike ordinance, which bore his imprint.
The council approved the ordinance 4-1, with Council member Theresa Pontieri voting against only because it preserved an age limit: children younger than 11 will not be allowed on ebikes on public paths. Pontieri considers that overreach.
Class 1 and 2 ebikes, pedal- and throttle-assisted, will have speed limits of 20 miles per hour. Class 3 bikes, which are pedal-assisted, will be limited to 28 miles per hour. (See an explanation of the three classes here.) All ebikes must have their classification number fixed on the bike. Off-road bikes will not be allowed on public sidewalks. Riders will have to carry a government-issued photo identification. School IDs are permissible. Bike tampering could result in confiscation of the bike. Riders must follow the rules of the road.
“I appreciate that you guys are seriously considering some of my edits,” Dance, who also chairs the county’s traffic-safety team and routinely rides an ebike, said. He’d added one more edit since the last version: an ebike speed limit for school zones, “because you have parents, you have kids walking to school, and I think it’s important to reduce those speeds down to pedestrian speed during school, flashing times and at crosswalks.”
As was the case during previous council discussions on the ordinance, the age limit was strongly debated, with Dance falling on the side of an age limit. “Ebikes are distinctly different from regular bikes,” he said. “They are heavy. They are anywhere from 50 to 70 to 80 pounds. They can’t stop as quickly, and they hit things with different force. So if you are a pedestrian or you’re going to feel the impact differently, so that’s where the age is important.”
Safety is the goal, but government should not be “engaging in the overreach and trying to parent our residents’ kids,” Pontieri said. “Realistically, kids that age can’t ride them. You don’t see a lot of them riding them. Now, I think we’re talking about kind of a non-issue, but still, overstepping in my concern is precedent. What precedent are we setting by telling parents they can or cannot allow their children to ride a certain type of bicycle.” To Council member Ty Miller–who sees younger children ride them–lines of the sort are commonly drawn by regulations.
There were comparatively few public comments this time. There was a concern about enforcement and the cost of enforcement, though a resident’s suggestion that “supporting that ordinance cost us another million dollars to go out and track down these kids and write tickets and do all the administration with it” seemed exaggerated. Still, cost estimates were not linked to the ordinance, and the resident–Mark Webb–was referring to the Sheriff’s Office’s annual budget requests, which have been steep. The sheriff originally recommended to Palm Coast to write the ordinance.
“The whole reason that we initially started discussing this ordinance was not the nitty gritty of these rabbit holes we’ve kind of gone down,” Pontieri said. “The whole point was because we had quite a few incidents of reckless driving with some of the bikes that have been modified,” enabling motorized dirtbike riding under the guise of ebikes. Pontieri doubted that Webb’s scenario would happen, especially since the sheriff’s annual requests are based on a broader master plan, not day-to-day developments.
Dance acknowledged the importance of protecting pedestrians but stressed what he’s been advocating for in connection with ebike safety: the importance of making such ordinances part of a larger whole that recognizes the importance of connected modes of transportation, and the fact that ebikes are an increasingly popular and necessary mode of transportation, especially for older people. He said it “makes sense for the county to consider this in the near future,” meaning a similar ordinance.
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