Charlotte County passed its first set of rules for e-bikes in February<\/a>. Since then, the Florida Legislature modified state e-bike regulations, requiring that riders under 16 need to wear helmets.<\/p>\nThat’s one of the elements that can come out of the local ordinance.<\/p>\n
Pull Quote<\/p>\n
\u201cFor 10-year-olds, I don’t think they’re safe to be driving up and down roads because they really don’t have the awareness of what’s going on around them.<\/p>\n
Stephen R. Deutsch, Charlotte County Commissioner<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re taking out a lot, and it’s not because we don’t care about them,\u201d said Terry Cochran, professional standards & training director for the Charlotte County Sheriff\u2019s Office. \u201cIt’s because it’s already covered in statues.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under Florida statute, an e-bike is a bicycle or tricycle equipped with fully operable pedals, a seat or saddle and an electric motor of less than 750 watts.<\/p>\n
A motorcycle is any motor vehicle having and designed to travel on not more than three wheels and lacks pedals. The term does not include an e-bike.<\/p>\n
\u201cHuman powered with an electric battery that can assist or take over for you, are considered e-bicycles,\u201d Cochran said.<\/p>\n
Included in the amended ordinance is the prohibition of motorcycles on public sidewalks, cross-sides, intersections and multi-use paths. E-bikes would remain permitted.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Stephen R. Deutsch shared his concerns about the lack of age regulations.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor 10-year-olds, I don’t think they’re safe to be driving up and down roads because they really don’t have the awareness of what’s going on around them,\u201d Deutsch said. \u201cWe’re letting a youngster get on a bike at any age and go on our roads.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cochran responded that it is up to the parents to decide for their kids.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are not up on the dais to parent,\u201d Cochran said. \u201cWe are up on the dais to regulate behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n
In terms of penalties for minors that break the law, Cochran said the sheriff\u2019s office emphasizes educational awareness.<\/p>\n
\u201cEducation is everything and progressive,\u201d Cochran said. \u201cWe’re gonna say, \u2018Hey, wear your helmet.\u2019 If we see them again, then we’re going to step it up a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cochran said law enforcement will call a minor\u2019s parents or guardians for a repeat offense.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe work with the parents before citations are even done,\u201d Cochran said.<\/p>\n
Cochran provided statistics for deputy encounters with e-bikes:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 From Feb. 10 to June 4, 53 contacts, with 38 education warnings, 11 citations and 4 arrests.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0From June 4 to Aug. 22, 54 traffic stops, 43 education warnings, 11 citations.<\/p>\n
From Feb. 1 to July 9, there have been 77 crashes that included a bicycle, moped, scooter, non-motor vehicle occupant or pedestrian. Four resulted in fatalities, 19 with serious injuries and 18 with minor injuries.<\/p>\n
Due to House Bill 243<\/a>, which would have had reports filed on e-bike infractions,\u00a0being vetoed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, the county cannot calculate how many of the 77 crashes were e-bike related.<\/p>\nThe county will announce when the proposed amended ordinance will return for a second and final public hearing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charlotte County’s electric bicycle ordinance includes repetitive language that is covered under Florida Statute. SUN FILE PHOTO MURDOCK…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407645,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,853,46991,7215,11398,161908,84722,161909],"class_list":["post-407644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-charlotte-county","tag-charlotte-county-commission","tag-charlotte-county-sheriff","tag-e-bike","tag-e-bike-enforcement","tag-e-bike-policy","tag-e-bikes-are-everywhere-in-charlotte-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407644","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=407644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}