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Public safety committee recommends e-bike, scooter ordinance to full board
Summary
The committee reviewed a proposed ordinance regulating e-bikes, mini-bikes and motorized scooters (licensing, time/place restrictions, parental penalties) and voted to recommend the measure to the full Board of Aldermen after clarifying class 1–2 sidewalk use and asking for chart/appendix edits.
The Public Safety Committee discussed a proposed ordinance that would regulate electric bicycles (multiple classification levels), mini-bikes, motorized scooters and other motorized alternative vehicles.
Chair walked the committee through the ordinance’s three main categories of changes: agent/license restrictions, a new parental-penalty provision (summons-to-court option for parents of underage operators), and time-and-place restrictions for various device classifications. Committee members said the ordinance text and the accompanying chart were helpful but ambiguous in spots and suggested clarifications before the full board considers the bill.
Committee members pressed staff to make explicit that class 1 and class 2 electric bicycles may be operated on paved sidewalks but that class 3 electric bicycles would not be allowed on sidewalks. They also discussed whether the chart should be formalized as an appendix to the ordinance and whether any blank cells in the chart were intended to allow officer discretion. Officer Sullivan clarified that the parental enforcement vehicle would be a summons to Brentwood Court as a traffic-type violation under the proposed language.
Members asked staff to confer with the city attorney about making the parental citation language (summons) explicit in the draft ordinance and asked staff to bring a cleaned-up chart and the suggested clarifications for the board’s legislative consideration. With those caveats, the committee voted to recommend that the Board of Aldermen consider the ordinance at the next legislative meeting; roll call was taken and the motion carried on a unanimous recorded vote of members present.
The committee also asked staff to prepare a public-education plan (signage and brochures), coordinate with schools and the school resource officer (SRO) program, and confirm whether one-wheel devices and motorized skateboards are included in the ordinance’s definitions.
Next step: staff will refine the ordinance language (appendix/chart and parental-summons language) and submit the recommended bill to the full board.
