Patrons and electric bicycles line up outside of the Ozona Brewing Company patio on Saturday, April 9, 2022 in Ozona. [\u00a0Photo by LUIS SANTANA\/Times\u00a0]<\/p>\n
Sheriff Gualtieri tells commissioners the problem is rider conduct, not a lack of laws<\/p>\n
CLEARWATER \u2014 Pinellas County will hold off on new e-bike regulations until the Legislature takes up the issue again, after Sheriff Bob Gualtieri told county commissioners his deputies already have the tools they need.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom an enforcement standpoint, we don\u2019t need any more tools,\u201d Gualtieri said during the commission\u2019s Oct. 8 work session.<\/p>\n
Gualtieri, who said he supported and helped work on a statewide e-bike bill that Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed in June, predicted lawmakers will revisit the issue during the 2027 session. \u201cThere\u2019s no doubt about it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Until then, he urged commissioners not to overreach.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to be careful that we don\u2019t do any harm. \u2026 For a lot of people, that\u2019s the only way they are getting to work,\u201d he said. \u201cWe want people working, we want them employed, we want them to be productive.\u201d<\/p>\n
The same caution applies to age limits, Gualtieri said. Many students live too close to school to ride a bus but far enough away that their parents don\u2019t want them walking, so they ride e-bikes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not the thing, it\u2019s the people,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not the e-bike. A lot of people love e-bikes, enjoy e-bikes, and some of them are using it for their primary mode of transportation. \u2026 It\u2019s the people who are doing it improperly, misusing it, so the emphasis and focus should be on the conduct and our enforcement of that misconduct.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gualtieri said directed patrols are making a difference.<\/p>\n
\u201cA year ago, it was the No. 1 complaint,\u201d he said. \u201cWe put a lot of directed patrols out there, a lot of enforcement effort, and I think we\u2019ve made great progress. It\u2019s certainly not resolving the issue totally, but we\u2019re much better than where we were.\u201d<\/p>\n
County Administrator Barry Burton said enforcement is the key and that the county is working with the Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
Whit Blanton, executive director of Forward Pinellas, the county\u2019s land use and transportation planning agency, walked commissioners through the vetoed measure, Senate Bill 382. It would have required e-bike riders and other micromobility users to yield to pedestrians and give an audible signal when passing on trails \u2014 \u201ca common courtesy,\u201d Blanton said \u2014 and to slow to 10 mph within 50 feet of a pedestrian on a sidewalk.<\/p>\n
Blanton said the governor vetoed the bill primarily over concerns about how local governments would respond to it, including how they would track speed limits. \u201cWe do expect it to come back in some form in the next session,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, local governments already have considerable authority, Blanton said. Cities and counties can require e-bike riders to carry government-issued photo identification, which need not be a driver\u2019s license, and can set a minimum age to operate one. They can also restrict e-bikes on specific facilities or beaches, cap sidewalk speeds at 15 mph and set speed limits on trails.<\/p>\n
Some Pinellas municipalities have adopted such restrictions, Blanton said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere has been a hodgepodge of ordinances that have been introduced and passed across the state, because of the vacuum at the state level,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Complaints have centered on e-bikes on sidewalks and the Pinellas Trail, \u201cwhere we have all kinds of users out there,\u201d Blanton said. He said he is working with county staff on proposed rules that will come back to the commission for consideration. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Patrons and electric bicycles line up outside of the Ozona Brewing Company patio on Saturday, April 9, 2022…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-431491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431491","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=431491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}