E-bike regulations could be coming to Portage. That push for rules of the road follows adoption of ordinances in other communities.
Councilwoman Melissa Weidenbach and Mayor Austin Bonta talked about the proposal during Bonta’s Mayor’s Monday event at City Hall.
Weidenbach said she is working with City Attorney Dan Bortnicki to draft an ordinance requiring e-bikes to have front and rear lights and to use turn signals. Riders under 18 would be required to wear a properly fitting helmet with the strap tightened.
With any new ordinance, enforceability must be considered, Bonta said.
“The cops can’t see what kind of bike it is just by driving,” he said.
He likened regulating e-bikes to legalizing the use of golf carts a few years ago. “It used to be you couldn’t drive a golf cart, and that was the end of the story,” he said.
Then came compromise legislation that required golf carts to be registered and forbade their use on main roads. “The odd compromise we have here didn’t please anybody,” Bonta said.
Golf carts and e-bikes aren’t the oddest things Bonta has seen on city streets. He recalled seeing a boat with wheels being pulled by a tractor a couple of years ago.
It was probably illegal, Bonta said, but undeniably funny.
He recalled his not-so-distant memories of riding a bike in Portage as an 18-year-old. He rode on sidewalks part of the time, he said.
“I’m not trying to belittle the need for rules,” he said, but acknowledged the need for better education of bike riders.
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In the 1990s, Portage required that all bicycles had to be registered. In 2010 or 2011, the city got rid of that registration requirement, Bonta said. “I had been riding unregistered bikes all my life, and I never knew.”
Resident Robin Wilkening said she was pushing for a helmet giveaway as part of educating children about bicycle safety.
“They’re free helmets. You don’t have to buy them,” she said. “We’re teaching the rules of the road.”
“This is also where we need more lights in the city” to enhance safety, Bonta said.
Wearing all black at night on an e-bike isn’t illegal, and requiring high-visibility vests might not work, but “being able to be visible is really important.”
Bonta said he heard complaints about drivers doing a rolling stop at Hamstrom Road and Fallen Timbers, so he checked it out. Oddly enough, drivers didn’t commit that offense when police were on hand to watch for it.
Bonta saw kids on e-bikes who didn’t even do a rolling stop; they didn’t slow down before running the stop sign. He ran after them but couldn’t catch up.
At a recent city event, he lectured kids about stopping at an intersection. They then rode to the intersection of Hamstrom Road and Central Avenue — “one of the most dangerous intersections, in my opinion” – and stopped just like they should.
Wilkening said she didn’t realize motorized bikes were allowed on trails until she saw them.
The sign that prohibits motorized traffic on trails predates e-bikes, Bonta said, so they might need to be updated.
Bonta said he does a lot for youth in the city, including a turn in the dunk tank and taking a pie in the face for charity. “I can’t get on an e-bike and demonstrate how to ride an e-bike. I’ll crash.”
“What do parents need to know to talk to kids about their safety?” he asked.
“In time, people just kind of learn what to do,” just like Bonta did when he grew up. “We’re in a transition right now where I don’t want to see anyone get hurt in that transition,” he said.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.