The Fort Myers Beach Town Council is one vote away from changing its ordinance to allow ebikes on town sidewalks. The current ordinance prohibits any motorized vehicles from using sidewalks on Fort Myers Beach.
On Monday the Town Council voted to move the ordinance change onto a second public hearing on April 7th where it will be discussed and voted on one final time. It appears likely the ordinance change will pass, although every Town Council member admits enforcing bike speeds is nearly impossible.
Vice Mayor Jim Attorholt said the Lee County Sheriff’s Department told him that there’s no way to track the speed of bicycles so the council is hoping bikers are courteous and use common sense when in an area with a lot of pedestrian traffic.
The danger zone is basically from the Sea Grape Plaza to Times Square. That’s where the bike lane in the street ends and as you get closer to Times Square, pedestrian traffic increases, especially during season. It’s in that area where it becomes more dangerous for all bikers to ride. The Town Council is trying to make ebiking on Fort Myers Beach safer while not making it unsafe for walkers. It’s a tough needle to thread.
The new ordinance would allow ebikes to go only up to 10MPH on the sidewalks but require them to slow to 1-3 MPH when passing pedestrians. It would require bikers to alert pedestrians they are coming by, which most courteous bikers do already.
While Lee County owns Estero Boulevard and the sidewalks, the town’s code enforcement officers will be keeping an eye out for bikers who may be endangering the safety of pedestrians. If they spot a bad actor how or she may get a verbal warning or a fine. The dollar amount of the fine should be finalized by the April 7th hearing and vote. The issue will mainly be in the crowded areas. If someone is riding an ebike on the sidewalk at 20 MPH on the south end and there are no pedestrians around they will not be targeted by enforcement.
Only two people spoke at public comment about the proposed ordinance change. However, by the time the issue came up the Town Council meeting had already gone on for 7 hours and the microphone batteries had died so it was unclear if they spoke in favor or against.
Last Saturday we were loaned an ebike from Current Riders FMB and recorded a video riding the bike on Estero Boulevard which you can watch HERE
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Using this as a platform to vent…….I was going north bound yesterday around 2:00pm, I started halfway mid island. It took me 2 and half hours just to get to the bridge in traffic. I’ve worked at this location for 9 years and its getting very old doing this everyday. …….There, I still don’t feel any better venting on here.
🙁 Maybe I need to get a bike !!
Due t much Pedestrian traffic , this a no to me. I find bikers less courteous than traditional bikers. Traditional bikers are.
If the reason of allowing bikers on pedestrian walkways, is to get them off the streets, this not the solution.
Bike lanes are.
I wonder if any of the council members ride bicycles or walk regularly for 3 or more miles on the island. They should try that, if they haven’t already, and then vote.
1-3 MPH passing pedestrians ??? I can’t control a bike at 1-3 mph and the weight of e-bikes are too heavy to balance. Speed of people walking is usually faster than that. No way to enforce speed and riders of these e-bikes. Age restriction for e-bike riders? When speed is added courtesy also decreases.
Huge Mistake!
I bike constantly on FMB and from my observation 99% of bikers are courteous to pedestrians. Erratic bikers are usually on the street because it’s a smoother pavement. Glad to see things are headed in the right direction for the majority of bikers.
Love e-bike’s and everybody should have commen sense when you ride.
We need more car traffic enforcement for endangering the safety of pedestrians and other drivers , this is the biggest issue on the island .
This is
You make some good points. Unfortunately, common sense isn’t so common anymore. As for safety and traffic enforcement, until the below can be managed more effectively, e-bikes should be tabled until next peak season:
– there are golf carts on the sidewalks, no one doing anything about it.
– there are golf carts on both bridges, no one doing anything about it.
– there are e-bikes already on the sidewalks, no one doing anything about it.
– there are cars backing up traffic because they are not using the center, left turn lane, no one doing anything about it.
– there are cars continually doing less than 25 MPH between Red Coconut and the south end, with lines of cars behind them, no one doing anything about it.
Until law enforcement, or someone, can police the issues already causing problems, table e-bikes.
Well covered items.. who cares what they propose if there are no enforcement.
25 mph is the maximum speed in that area, not a mandated speed to travel. i agree its frustrating sometimes but better than cars doing 40 and using the centerlane as a passing lane
It’s 25 MPH from Time Square to Red Coconut. From Red Coconut to the south end is 30 MPH. Unfortunately, not all the speed limit signs have been replaced on the south end since Ian. There’s only one northbound sign and it’s just after you get off the south bridge onto Estero. The first southbound sign is just after Red Coconut, but there’s another just past Publix. If everyone would do the speed limit and use the center lane for left turns, the south end traffic wouldn’t be half as bad as it is.