ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 Orange County has new rules in place for how people can use e-scooters and e-bikes in the county. The new ordinance includes speed limits, fines, and the authority to impound the vehicles if needed.<\/p>\n
The Orange County Sheriff\u2019s Office sent Spectrum News the following statement about how it will implement and enforce the new ordinance\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Orange County Sheriff\u2019s Office is committed to ensuring safety on our sidewalks, shared paths and roadways. Above all else, we want our residents and visitors to be familiar with the ordinance so they can be safe and keep their kids safe. We began posting information about the ordinance upon its approval Tuesday night and will continue with the public education campaign. We believe that many people just don\u2019t know the rules for operating micro mobility devices, and with some education and warnings, we may be able to change behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brittany Wilson knows about the dangers e-bikes and e-scooters can bring to our roadways. She said that in May, her daughter was riding an e-scooter home from school when an e-bike rider struck her, then sped away.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen she fell, she sustained so many injuries that we had to rush her to the emergency room, actually two different emergency rooms,\u201d said Wilson.<\/p>\n
Wilson said her daughter walked away with a laceration to her wrist, a knee injury, and is still being treated by a chiropractor almost five months later. Wilson believes Orange County\u2019s new ordinance is a good start toward safer roads.<\/p>\n
The ordinance sets a 10 mile per hour speed limit for e-bike and e-scooters on all sidewalks and shared-use paths, and it sets a 20 mile per hour speed limit for other facilities. Commissioner Mike Crabb worked 30 years with the Orange County Sheriff\u2019s Office, and he helped write the new rules.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re dealing with young folks that don\u2019t have the experience, so they don\u2019t know the rules of the road,\u201d Crabb said. \u201cThey\u2019re riding in the road. They don\u2019t know they\u2019re supposed to stop at a stop sign. They don\u2019t know they\u2019re supposed to watch out for pedestrians.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crabb said it will be up to the Sheriff\u2019s Office to enforce the new ordinance, and there will be challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the challenge, really, to be honest with you, is going to be volume. There\u2019s gonna be more than they\u2019ll be able to handle at first,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Crabb likes the fact that the ordinance gives deputies flexibility on how they can handle each offense.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted them to have options that we didn\u2019t have to automatically write a ticket,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Crabb said warnings can help educate young riders and parents about the new rules, but deputies can issue $100 citations if they need to.<\/p>\n
Wilson hopes Orange County will work with surrounding areas to set the same rules everywhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur community needs to come up with across all county lines the same clear regulations, rules, so that it\u2019s understood among parents, students and community residents,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Many local leaders hope state lawmakers in Tallahassee will pass a uniform statewide law to regulate e-scooters and e-bikes in 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 Orange County has new rules in place for how people can use e-scooters and e-bikes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415214,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3140,2173,1337,115,1335,139,141,140,99,835],"class_list":["post-415213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-app-traffic-transit","tag-keith-landry","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-politics","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415213","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=415213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}