{"id":30776,"date":"2025-11-11T05:53:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T05:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/30776\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T05:53:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T05:53:16","slug":"saline-city-council-approves-first-reading-of-electric-mobility-devices-ordinance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/30776\/","title":{"rendered":"Saline City Council Approves First Reading of Electric Mobility Devices Ordinance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Saline City Council unanimously passed the first reading of its proposed Ordinance 877, which would regulate the usage of electric bikes, skateboards and mobility devices in the downtown area.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCouncilmember Rice had some downtown businesses that had brought concern to her about people stepping out of a store and having some of these devices kind of whiz by,\u201d Acting City Manager Elle Cole said. \u201cAnd the notion kind of came to us that we didn\u2019t have an updated policy to address these multi mobile devices that are now traversing our town.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The current language of the ordinance prohibits use of electronic mobility devices, including electric bikes and electric skateboards, from being used in the area designated in yellow in the map below. This will not apply to ADA-compliant devices.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" data-dominant-color=\"bab6a2\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #bab6a2;\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"486\" height=\"400\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-93551 not-transparent perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Screenshot-258.png\"  data-\/><img loading=\"lazy\" data-dominant-color=\"bab6a2\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #bab6a2;\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"486\" height=\"400\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Screenshot-258.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-93551 not-transparent\" \/>Photo provided by Saline City Council<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat this does is just say, hey, in town, we don\u2019t ride the bike,\u201d Cole said. \u201cWe don\u2019t ride these electronic devices, we walk them through town. It\u2019s much safer for them to be walking their devices through this area, as doors can open and a catastrophe can happen very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to councilmember Girbach, concerns have been raised regarding the ordinance from e-bike users who state that, when used properly, an electric bike should be held to the same standards as a typical bicycle. Mayor Pro-Tem Janet Dillon agreed, emphasizing the importance of devices like these for activity in Saline.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re a walkable community, or at least that\u2019s what we say we are,\u201d Dillon said. \u201cSo we\u2019re going to have to, you know, share the sidewalk. [\u2026] Asking people to walk their bike, I think, is going to start causing some issues.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Concerns were also raised by councilmember Jenn Harmount about the speed limit proposed by the ordinance in bikeable downtown areas, which is between 15 and 20 mph, depending on the device being used. Councilmember Nicole Rice stated the numbers were borrowed from similar ordinances from surrounding cities, and that the speed limit could be adjusted in the following reading.<\/p>\n<p>The ordinance will be read again at the Sep 8 meeting before City Council makes a final decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Saline City Council unanimously passed the first reading of its proposed Ordinance 877, which would regulate the usage&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[5196,19552,19553,19554,19555,128,130,129,19556,19557],"class_list":{"0":"post-30776","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reading","8":"tag-ada","9":"tag-ebikes","10":"tag-electric-bikes","11":"tag-electronic-mobility","12":"tag-mobility-devices","13":"tag-reading-city","14":"tag-reading-city-headlines","15":"tag-reading-city-news","16":"tag-saline-city-council","17":"tag-saline-ordinance-877"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}