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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As of 4/9/25, e-bikes remain illegal on Estero island, on both street and sidewalk. E-bikers coming to the beach from the mainland must park and lock their e-bikes on San Carlos Island. E-bikes can be locked to that metal railing at the base of the Matanzas Pass Bridge on San Carlos Island, which is as close as you can legally bring an e-bike to Fort Myers Beach. Violators face up to nine (9) months in county jail.
America is a RICH MAN’S country! And Fort Myers Beach is exclusively reserved for the wealthiest people. In a wealthy area like Fort Myers Beach, no automobile = no right to be part of the community. In a rich man’s realm, bicycles and e-bikes are synonymous with poverty. And not only will e-bikes remain illegal on Estero Island, but it is in fact a matter of time before regular, non-motorized bicycles are banned from the island, followed by new laws that no person is ever again to enter Estero Island except in a private automobile, laws that will be intended exclusively for revenue and crowd control.
I sat in the chambers for 6 hours to be able to speak on this issue, but then had to leave for an appointment. Council needs to assess the way they set up agendas.
When you ride an e-bike with courtesy, people can trust you. A few etiquette rules are as follows;
-Have a horn on your e-bike. Give an audible warning anytime you see either a pedestrian or a slower biker ahead. Wal Mart sells those neat horns that have that black rubber squeeze bulb on one end. Those horns can be heard up to 150 feet away. And they can easily be heard above the sound of traffic.
-If you come upon a crowded area, slow down, or take an alternate route if it’s super packed, such as during Spring Break, Christmas, and what not.
-I personally would recommend keeping the speed between 8 and 11 mph, slower in more crowded areas. Estero Blvd has residential streets intersecting about roughly every 200 feet, and accelerating to 15 mph, which is not exactly feasible with just 200 feet of distance, doesn’t really make any sense if you have to slam on the brakes all of a sudden because of a car entering the crosswalk in front of you, and doing so too often will wear down the brakes to where you’d need to replace them sooner than later. Not to mention all those driveways and parking lot entrances and exits that have cars passing through quite often. In other words, Estero Blvd isn’t exactly built for going ahead full (or ahead flank) on an e-bike.
-Ride slowly at night, so you don’t collide with any tree branches, trash cans, or the curb.
-Absolutely NO riding in the street on Estero Blvd between 5:30 am in the morning and 11:30 pm at night! Anyone who likes to ride in the street, the times to do so are as follows;
11:30 pm to 5:30 am
Sunday night/Monday morning,
Monday night/Tuesday morning,
Tuesday night/Wednesday morning,
Wednesday night/Thursday morning,
and Thursday night/Friday morning.
No riding in the street at all on Estero Blvd on Friday night, all of Saturday, and Sunday morning.
-Now anything capable of 40 mph or faster belongs in the street.
You forgot another thing, sudden and hard accelerations will wear the battery down and cause it to not last very long. When taking long bike trips, such as to Lehigh Acres, Cape Coral, Naples, or Punta Gorda, nothing wrecks the trip like the battery giving out on you on your return trip when you’re still ten miles or farther from home and you have to petal a roughly 60 pound bike that distance to get home.
Do your job, FMB Town Council. Represent the people of FMB, who by a large majority do not agree with changing the existing ordinance which will lead to the endangerment of pedestrians. Show us you still retain a modicum of common sense.
I don’t agree that the majority are against e-bikes. I love ebiking and am always courteous. Most pedestrians also are very respectful that I encounter. Slow ebiking should be allowed.
I walk from the South end frequently and allowing e-bikes, e-scooter on the sidewalk is a bad move. It’s an accident in the making, better get some more ambulances to be on the ready. I had this happen to me just this past Sunday. Two e-scooter on the sidewalk racing a golf cart announcing they were doing 28 miles an hour. They came upon me in seconds and I barely had time to react. Another bad move by our Great City Council. Maybe they should attach this to the ordinance All Council members MUST use a E-bike or scooter once they enter FMB. Let’s see how long before one of them takes a plunge.
28 miles would be illegal and not allowed. With the amount of vehicle traffic, bikes, scooters, pedestrians there will always be risk. Just walking across Estero is treacherous. Be aware and be safe!
Need a sign along the path:
WARNING: ELDERLY PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK. THE TOWN WISHES YOU GOOD LUCK.
Ebikes should be treated as motor cycles…they are not bicycles.whould you let a Harley that can do three miles per hour on the side walks??? Let them sit in traffic. It only takes one EBiker to hurt some one on the side walk…….really bad.
A harley weighs 900 pounds an eBike weighs 50 pounds.
And one e-bike getting hit by a car would even be worse!!
What about handicapped scooters are those permitted like e-bikes???
Always have been
Handicap equipment is governed be the Americans with Disability Act (ADA). They cannot be restricted from going anywhere a pedestrian can go.
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 !!
The same reason the Town isn’t moving into their new building. They may claim it is because of no elevator but what are the odds the elevator will be working as soon as season ends and traffic lessens? Of course who could blame them for not wanting to sit in traffic for another hour and a half to go 3 miles more.
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.
If you can’t control an eBike at 1-3 mph, you should consider either walking your bike when pedestrians are present or not riding an eBike at all.
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.