definition of \u201cself-propelled devices\u201d<\/a> as:<\/p>\nElectric personal assistive mobility devicesGolf cartsElectric bicyclesMotor-assisted skateboardOff-highway vehicleSmall electric ride-on toy vehicleMotor-assisted scooter (e-scooters)Neighborhood electric vehiclesViolation of the ordinance could result in fines of up to $2,000, if passed.<\/p>\n
What they are saying<\/p>\n
Council members and residents said they had concerns about e-bikes and how they are regulated. Resident John Robertson said he does not want an ordinance that would ban or \u201coverly restrict\u201d electric vehicular devices.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re rapidly becoming a practical, efficient, necessary part of how people move, especially in communities like ours that border the [Texas] Medical Center,\u201d Robertson said. \u201cThese devices are not a luxury, they\u2019re practical solutions to a real infrastructure constraint.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robertson added that most of the accidents involving e-bikes happen in areas where the speed limits exceed a bike\u2019s speed, and within West U, \u201cthe speed limits are not that high.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, in an emailed statement, resident Margaret Salem said e-bikes are a safety risk and should be banned from the sidewalk. She also said she and her young son were nearly hit by one.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt a minimum, the city should consider implementing stronger regulations, such as an age requirement of 16 years of age to operate these motorized devices,\u201d Salem said.<\/p>\n
Council member Kalie Rainsberger said the behavior she observed is often from younger residents.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I see people on them, it’s adolescents, it\u2019s rarely adults going to work,\u201d Rainsberger said. \u201cI support an adult being able to use these things, but last weekend I saw someone doing figure eights around the two softball fields, and there were dozens of people he was going around.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also of note<\/p>\n
The city is limited to what it can regulate based on state laws. Police Chief Gary Ratliff said state law would allow the city to prohibit e-bike operations on a sidewalk and establish speed limits. However, the city cannot prohibit using them on a street or where they are permitted.<\/p>\n
Rules with e-scooters are different, he said. E-scooters can be prohibited from operating on a street, highway or sidewalk.<\/p>\n
Council member Clay Brett said he believes that e-scooters and e-bikes should be treated the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cE-bikes are the most pervasive issue,\u201d Brett said. \u201cSome regulation is needed. The e-bikes are really similar to e-scooters. It\u2019s not clear to me that the logic on e-bikes wouldn\u2019t apply to e-scooters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stay tuned<\/p>\n
Officials said they will come back with a \u201ccleaned-up version\u201d of the proposed ordinance at the April 27 meeting, with clearer language on the types of vehicles that will be included in the ordinance and where they can be used.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"West University Place officials want to better define which vehicles can be used on city sidewalks and which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[30717,30278,94993,56,58,57,94992,10105],"class_list":["post-250529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-e-bikes","tag-e-scooters","tag-electric-scooters","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-west-u-e-bikes","tag-west-university-place"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}