City of Long Beach Raises eBike Fines to $500.00

[arcom]

The Long Beach City Council last week increased fines for electric bicycle riders who illegally ride their vehicles on the boardwalk or sidewalk as a deterrent to what a spokesman called the top complaint from the public.

Long Beach City Council on July 16 increased the fines for violating traffic code from a minimum of $50 to a maximum of $500, up from a range of $2 to $250.

A city ordinance makes it illegal to ride vehicles, including "motorized" bicycles, bicycles and tricycles, on pedestrian thoroughfares but makes an exception for riding bicycles and tricycles on the boardwalk provided they are in the bike lane, powered by human exertion and traveling at "reasonable" speeds.

 

[arcom]

P.S. That would be Long Beach, NY

 

[mrgold35]

Doesn't sound fair to ride a pedal bike 15-20 mph with zero fines and you get a $50-$500 riding an ebike 5-12 mph? Doing a speed limits for all (e)bikes with fines depending on speed over the limit and number of offensives seems fair just like speeding fines on roadways.

 

[Doggyman1202]

"P.S. That would be Long Beach, NY". An old college friend forwarded a screenshot of the article. The city council's new policy is mingled with very reasonable intentions and forgivable ignorance, given the industry's failure to police itself. I've commented in the past that law enforcement should focus more on riding behavior than nearly impossible on-the-fly determinations about the e-bike class. I still believe that, but if the industry isn't willing to do it on its own, than we need a standardized definition of an e-bike, vs. an e-moped, e-moto, e-this or e-that. With standardization in place, states, municipalities, parks, etc. can structure regulations without "throwing out the baby with the bath water".

 

[CanNik]

The Long Beach City Council last week increased fines for electric bicycle riders who illegally ride their vehicles on the boardwalk or sidewalk as a deterrent to what a spokesman called the top complaint from the public.

Long Beach City Council on July 16 increased the fines for violating traffic code from a minimum of $50 to a maximum of $500, up from a range of $2 to $250.

A city ordinance makes it illegal to ride vehicles, including "motorized" bicycles, bicycles and tricycles, on pedestrian thoroughfares but makes an exception for riding bicycles and tricycles on the boardwalk provided they are in the bike lane, powered by human exertion and traveling at "reasonable" speeds.

Good

 

[AvalancheRun]

How is traffic enforcement over there out of curiosity?

Here in Austin you could do just about anything in a car and not get pulled over. Some of our citizens think bicycles are the sole threat to pedestrians and the sole source of traffic congestion. When the city makes road improvements they openly admit safety is not a worthy goal since it may impact their ability to drive how they want. Seems to be on par for much of the US since Covid.

I 100% support what Long Beach is doing, but let’s extend that to the vehicles that overwhelmingly kill and maim while we’re at it.

 

[Doggyman1202]

How is traffic enforcement over there out of curiosity?

Here in Austin you could do just about anything in a car and not get pulled over.

I don't live there but I've spent enough time in that area to say that Austin has nothing on Long Island. It's pretty much an aggressive, congested, road rage free-for-all, so your point is well taken.

As the market becomes increasingly dominated by muscle e-bikes with nominal mainly-for-show pedals, we are likely going to see a lot more of these blanket anti-ebike ordinances.

 

[AvalancheRun]

I don't live there but I've spent enough time in that area to say that Austin has nothing on Long Island. It's pretty much an aggressive, congested, road rage free-for-all, so your point is well taken.

As the market becomes increasing dominated by muscle e-bikes with nominal mainly-for-show pedals, we are likely going to see a lot more of these blanket anti-ebike ordinances.

Being from the east coast and still visiting a fair bit, nothing scares me like Texans in cars. And by cars I mean a huge pool of people here driving here the largest trucks or SUVs you might find on Long Island. All the aggression, with none of the skill. I guess drivers in both regions are tied for lack of concern for others.

 

[MikeDD]

do they have enough officers to enforce?

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

do they have enough officers to enforce?

That's the problem here in San Diego County. According to a sheriff I talked to last fall, funding isn't the enforcement bottleneck. They just aren't getting enough qualified applicants to keep up with the high attrition rate of recent years, and that's left them chronically short-staffed.

When I said something like, "Unfortunate timing, cuz we seem to be living in a time when a lot of people think that rules don't apply to them," he said, "You have no idea."

 

[Chargeride]

The more tolerable the society, the more people will push the boundaries.

You cant have a society watching endless unpunished law breaking without it quickly filtering to the wider masses.
There is pretty well a glorification of lawlessness in the UK at the moment.

Of course its all a tired and predictable plan to introduce absolute electronic, automated punishment that the Chinese government would be in awe of .
You choose your poison, new cars in the EU all have mandated driver alerting speed restrictions, it has to be turned off every journey, soon you wont be able to, and then the fines for older vehicles will go stratospheric.

Its the oldest trick on the book, let anti social ebike riding get so bad we will demand they are all crushed...

 

[Ebiker33]

So your telling me shop-lifters get to go free, but people trying to exercise outside are going to get fined, and that is the police focus........messed up topsy turvy justice.

 

[mrgold35]

Sad; but, true. You might really confuse the police if you tell them you are in the process of shop lifting the ebike if pulled over.