JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Jacksonville could be the next city to regulate e-bikes, with a new bill filed that aims to set age and speed limits for e-bike riders. <\/p>\n
Councilmember Michael Boylan (R-District 6) filed the bill after seeing some of the issues posed by e-bikes firsthand.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere have been incidents, which I have personally witnessed. A young boy rode off Brady Road into a ditch,\u201d said Boylan.<\/p>\n
Boylan noted his push comes as the number of children injured in e-bike accidents is on the rise.<\/p>\n
He said he also decided to file his bill after an effort to regulate e-bikes at the state level was vetoed by the Governor earlier this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s becoming pervasive, and while the number of incidents involving e-bikes may still be small, the percentage increase in the number of those incidents is growing rapidly,\u201d said Boylan.<\/p>\n Boylan\u2019s proposal<\/a> would set a speed limit of 10 miles per hour at all times when riding on sidewalks.<\/p>\n His bill also sets a minimum age limit of 11 to ride an e-bike, and parents could face a $100 fine or 60 days in jail for violations.<\/p>\n While Boylan said he believes JSO is interested in exploring e-bike regulations, JSO told us the bill was drafted without the agency\u2019s knowledge or input.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are currently reviewing the bill to determine whether it provides any useful enforcement mechanisms,\u201d a JSO spokesperson told us in an emailed statement. \u201cIn the meantime, our agency will continue to actively enforce pre-existing laws and regulations governing the operation of e-bikes throughout Duval County.\u201d<\/p>\n Last week, our partners at WFTV reported<\/a> the Volusia County Sheriff announced his agency would not enforce an e-bike age restriction passed in Deltona, citing concerns over enforcement.<\/p>\n Boylan acknowledged enforcement could pose a challenge, but he\u2019s hoping to work with JSO to get to a proposal that addresses those concerns and also protects public safety.<\/p>\n \u201cI understand the challenge of enforcement across the board, particularly for vehicle operations, is difficult,\u201d said Boyland. \u201dLet\u2019s stand behind it in the context that we don\u2019t want to see the youth of our community impacted by the poor operations of these bikes.\u201d<\/p>\n Boylan is holding a public meeting on his bill in two weeks.<\/p>\n He said he looks forward to hearing feedback from JSO and his colleagues on council at that meeting.<\/p>\n >>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Jacksonville could be the next city to regulate e-bikes, with a new bill filed that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[982,7840,77121,147295,7293,28,969,116,118,117,971,55599,970,1872,634,77120,115,2631,7842,5084],"class_list":["post-362562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-action_news","tag-ben_becker","tag-boylan","tag-brady_road","tag-deltona","tag-florida","tag-jack","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jake","tag-jake_stan","tag-jake_stoan","tag-jso","tag-local","tag-michael_boylan","tag-news","tag-sheriff","tag-tanika_hughes","tag-volusia_county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}