Are e-bikes and scooters unsafe for Newport Beach’s Oceanfront Boardwalk? – Orange County Register

Newport Seaside officers are attempting to determine easy methods to make town’s seaside boardwalk safer, an ongoing dialogue lately heightened by the inflow of digital bikes and scooters mixing with pedestrians and cyclists.

The Metropolis Council this week continued conversations that began final February, however had been placed on maintain when the coronavirus pandemic hit.

Newport Seaside’s Oceanfront Boardwalk on any given day – and particularly throughout this 12 months’s busy summer time as folks flocked to the coast – has a mixture of customers made up of residents and vacationer who stroll, jog, bike, skate and in rising numbers trip faster-moving digital bikes and scooters that may attain upward 15 mph.

“Members of the neighborhood have seen elevated concern of poor person habits, which is primarily associated to rushing cyclists, skate boarders and others touring on wheeled units alongside the Oceanfront Boardwalk,” metropolis staffers stated in  a report back to the council. “Current recognition of electrical motor-powered transportation units, reminiscent of electrical bicycles and scooters, has elevated issues over motorized units on the boardwalk.”

Council members, on Tuesday, Sept. 22, favored rising fines for rule violations from $50 to $200, although they’ll need to take a second confirming vote on Oct. 6.

Further concepts mentioned had been including extra indicators reminding folks of the 8 mph velocity restrict, including “velocity calming units” that encourage folks to decelerate and banning digital bikes and scooters on weekends throughout summer time.

The rise in e-bikes was especially apparent this year amid coronavirus shutdowns, as folks checked out new methods to get outdoor or get to areas the place parking restrictions had been put in place to restrict crowds and the unfold of the virus.

In 2009, an Oceanfront Security Steering Committee developed the present signal program, including greater than 100 indicators alongside the boardwalk with guidelines.

However Councilwoman Diane Dixon stated folks appear to pay no consideration to the indicators.  “They’re completely ineffective.”

She referred to as the disregard of the foundations “embarrassing” to town.

“We have now these indicators and guidelines and folks know they won’t be enforced,” she stated.

She stated in her six years on council, boardwalk security has been the No. 1 situation introduced by residents.

“It’s simply been exacerbated throughout COVID as a result of increasingly more persons are on the seaside, we all know,” she stated. “It’s a promenade, not a motorbike path. We have to discover a resolution.”

In prior years, town added battery-operated radar suggestions indicators alongside the boardwalk, “however residents famous frustration with the indicators and that rushing cyclists had been ‘racing’ to get the very best potential studying,” the employees’s report stated. So town made updates to make the indicators go clean when a sure velocity was hit to discourage “dangerous habits.”

Another choice can be the velocity calming units, reminiscent of “rumble” bumps which might be smaller than velocity bumps seen on streets, as a substitute a collection of small bumps with contrasting colours that create a visible and tactile really feel, officers stated. A trial of those strips is getting used at Castaways Park path as a pilot program via December.

Whereas some are involved in regards to the speeds and hazard of the fast-moving bikes, others say they’ve helped enhance mobility, permitting journey on the busy peninsula to keep away from site visitors or parking throughout busy vacationer months.

Councilman Brad Avery questioned if widening the boardwalk can be an answer, creating extra space for customers.