By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Electric bikes won’t be banished from Ocean City’s Boardwalk – at least not anytime soon.
A proposed ordinance to prohibit the increasingly popular e-bikes from the Boardwalk was tabled by City Council on Thursday night for further discussion following concerns from the public that an outright ban would be too harsh.
Councilman Terry Crowley Jr., who initially proposed tabling the ordinance, said he didn’t want to make a rash decision to ban e-bikes for the summer tourism season. He suggested forming a committee to take more time to study the issue.
“To sit here and make a gut decision, we’re going to miss something,” Crowley said.
Virtually all of the Council members agreed with Crowley’s comments while voting 6-1 to table the ordinance. Karen Bergman cast the dissenting vote. Instead, Bergman proposed a compromise to restrict e-bikes on the Boardwalk from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. each day.
Bergman felt that by limiting the hours of e-bikes to the early morning hours, when the Boardwalk is usually less crowded with pedestrians, it would reduce the possibility of accidents. She voted against tabling the ordinance because she felt that any delays in imposing restrictions on e-bikes might compromise safety.
“I just think we’re too late in the game to table this,” she said.
Mayor Jay Gillian had proposed the ban after listening to complaints from Ocean City residents about teenagers recklessly riding their e-bikes around town and the possibility of them hitting pedestrians on the Boardwalk.
“Prohibiting low-speed electric bicycles on the Boardwalk but permitting them on the other city bike paths will address the public safety concerns about the Boardwalk without depriving the users of low-speed electric bicycles of ample safe spaces in which to ride their bikes,” the ordinance says.
Council was expected during its meeting Thursday night to introduce the ordinance to enact the ban, but backed off after several members of the public, mainly senior citizens, asserted that responsible e-bikes riders would be unfairly punished for the actions of the reckless ones.
“So, I ask, wouldn’t a more sound and logical restriction policy be directed towards the actual perpetrators – instead of penalizing 100 percent of all taxpaying citizen e-bikers? Instead, your proposed solution is to ban all e-bikers from the Boardwalk forever. Period. Now that’s a sledgehammer approach. But it’s not a well-thought-out reasonable solution,” said Bill Eberle, an Ocean City resident.
Eberle, 73, told Council that he has a heart condition and uses his e-bike to get his exercise on the Boardwalk. He said he does so with the approval of his doctors.
He maintained that by banning e-bikes altogether, it would be an overreaction to “isolated instances of misbehaving kids.”
“My initial reaction to the draft Boardwalk e-bike ban was that it seems arbitrary and certainly overkill and unfair, and with no supporting fact-based data,” he said.
Eberle and other e-bike riders urged Council to reconsider the proposed ban or to search for a compromise. Before Council voted to table the ordinance, they suggested perhaps restricting e-bikes to the quiet off-season months or early morning hours of the day, before the Boardwalk usually becomes congested with pedestrians.
“E-bikes are here to stay, so why not find a way to embrace them?” asked Bernadette Bechta, an Ocean City resident.
Bechta, a retired schoolteacher, said she has had a double knee replacement and relies on her e-bike to ride on the Boardwalk.
Clark Manley, an Ocean City resident and e-bike rider, argued that a full ban would be “too drastic of a measure.” Manley proposed a compromise to restrict the hours for e-bikes and for the city to post new signs specifying the regulations for their operation.
Robin Shaffer, an Ocean City resident and member of the Board of Education, questioned whether an e-bike ban might expose the city to complaints that it was violating provisions of the Americans With Disabilities Act.
“It’s a drastic step to ban them outright,” Shaffer said while calling on Council to “take a pause” and study the issue further.
Susan Cracovaner, one of the local residents to speak in favor of an outright ban on e-bikes, said there is currently no speed limit on the Boardwalk, which raises the possibility of accidents.
Cracovaner also said e-bikes are typically two or three times heavier than regular bikes, so they could do more damage if there is an accident on the Boardwalk. During a Council meeting in April, Cracovaner said that her husband had been nearly run over by an e-bike on the Boardwalk.
Councilman Bob Barr, who has cerebral palsy and is an advocate for the disabled, stressed that he did not want the city to take any action that might be viewed as discriminatory against disabled or elderly e-bike riders.
At the same time, Barr said that he also wants to talk to Police Chief Jay Prettyman about ways to prevent teens from riding e-bikes recklessly on the Boardwalk.
“We need to send a message to these teenagers that we will not tolerate this,” Barr said.
Councilman Jody Levchuk also expressed fear that reckless e-bike riders could cause a serious or even fatal accident. He said the last thing he wants to do is “end up at a kid’s funeral here.”
Levchuk said he has a few “clever ideas” he wants to discuss with the police chief for e-bikes on the Boardwalk. He also emphasized the need for more public education about e-bikes to improve safety.
Councilman Tom Rotondi, echoing some of the complaints from the public, said he doesn’t want to unnecessarily punish responsible e-bike riders for “a handful” of reckless ones.
Rotondi felt that by rushing a ban on e-bikes before the issue could be studied further would amount to governing “by schizophrenia or shooting from the hip.”
