BAY HEAD — An ordinance to update municipal laws regulating e-bikes and similar vehicles to match those recently adopted by the state legislature was adopted by the mayor and council at the April 6 meeting.
During the meeting, Bay Head resident Bob Hayes asked the council to explain the ordinance “in a nutshell.”
Councilwoman Jennifer Barnes, chair of the legal and planning committee, said the new regulations cover speed limits, registration and a minimum rider age of 15. Hayes asked if the ordinance requires riders to follow usual traffic law, and Barnes confirmed that it does.
Under the new law, operators of low-speed electric bicycles will be required to follow regular traffic rules, including obeying the instructions of official traffic control signs, signals and other control devices applicable to vehicles unless otherwise directed by a police officer. Such operators will be barred from using their vehicles in a “reckless or careless manner,” nor will they be allowed to attach themselves to any streetcar or vehicle or to “allow others to hitch or hold onto” an electric bicycle during operation. It also prohibits passengers from riding on a bike without a proper seat, trailer or other accessory that complies with current regulations.
THE NEED FOR STATE-WIDE REGULATION
Last December, the borough council began tackling the growing issue of unregulated e-bikes, updating local code to keep up with the ever-changing innovations in the electric bicycles.
During the Dec. 9 council meeting, resident Laura Beeden voiced concerns about children operating the electric motor-powered bikes.
At the time, councilman Butch Stevenson said that state-wide action on this issue was required.
“The good thing about this is that all of us feel the same way,” Borough Attorney Greg McGuckin said. “Hopefully, the advisor group that the new governor-elect has appointed will be able to help the assembly and the senate come to a conclusion that’s beneficial to all of us, and create safety for our kids.”
Council members agreed that municipal regulations simply were not providing a long-term solution to the problem, and that state-wide regulation was needed in order to ensure law enforcement officers were operating under the same rules.
Borough Administrator Frank Pannucci said at the Dec. 9 meeting, “Even the boroughs that have strong e-bike ordinances still don’t have as much power as they’d like because the state has not regulated (them) yet… We try to teach bike and e-bike safety, but at the end of the day, something needs to come out of Trenton so that police departments can stop this uniformly.”
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