TARPON SPRINGS — City commissioners have taken a first step toward regulating e-bikes, voting unanimously to ban them from sidewalks in the city’s busiest tourist areas while Tarpon Springs waits on a countywide ordinance.
The measure, which passed on first reading, prohibits riding bicycles, e-bikes, electric personal assistive mobility devices, micromobility devices, motorized scooters and similar devices on designated sidewalks. Riders would have to walk the devices through those areas. Motorized wheelchairs and other medically necessary conveyances are exempt.
Designated sidewalks include:
• East Tarpon Avenue between Pinellas Avenue and Ring Street
• Dodecanese Boulevard between Pinellas Avenue and Roosevelt Boulevard
• Craig Park
Other areas designated under state law are also covered. Police said state statutes cap speeds at 15 mph in those areas.
Violations are noncriminal civil infractions. A first offense brings a written warning or a civil citation of up to $50. A second violation within 12 months carries a $100 fine, and a third $250.
Assistant Police Chief Taurean Mathis said the ordinance grew out of commissioners’ concerns about “e-bikes and pedestrians cohabitating on sidewalks.”
“We’ve experienced an increase with people using e-bikes. We wanted to come up with some parameters ... so we can kind of get something on the books to control what happens in Tarpon Springs,” he said.
“Our primary focus will be downtown, our Sponge Docks area, and Craig Park so we can kind of limit what’s happening around those areas.”
Mayor John Koulianos called the ordinance deliberately limited.
“We’ve heard from the community that this e-bike situation requires some regulation and ordinances,” he said. “This first ordinance is ... effective but narrow in scope. It’s going to cover our main tourist areas, and I think it will be effective.”
The city plans to hold off on anything broader until Pinellas County acts.
“The county is now working on an overall ordinance to cover e-bikes. As long as it doesn’t take too long, we’re going to wait for their findings and their ordinance, because then we will bring it before the board,” Koulianos said. “If it’s an acceptable ordinance to the city, then we can have a consistent policy, especially in the fact that we have county thoroughfares that come through our town — the trail, things like Howard Park, which are county roadways. It would be helpful to have consistency.”
County commissioners are studying the narrow set of e-bike rules local governments can still adopt after Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed a statewide safety bill. E-bike riders currently have the same rights as bicyclists.
Among the options under review: a minimum age for operators, a requirement that riders carry government-issued photo identification, limits on where e-bikes can go on public property such as beaches, and speed restrictions.
The Tarpon Springs ordinance also lets the city bar e-bikes during festivals and special events such as Hippie Fest and First Friday by designating “high pedestrian activity zones.” Under the ordinance, commissioners would have the authority to apply that designation anywhere they choose.
“People don’t like signs, but we’re going to have to place signs up, so you know you can’t have these devices in these areas,” Mathis said.
Commissioner Lori Weaver asked whether the city had a plan to spread the word. Mathis said the department would work with the city’s public information officer and its social media channels.
“I agree, that’s going to be key,” Weaver said.
Weaver also asked whether the rules address which direction riders travel, with or against traffic. Mathis said the devices are considered conveyances and must be ridden with traffic in accordance with the uniform traffic code. The first goal is to educate with a warning, he said, and enforce if the law is not followed.
“This is a good first step,” Commissioner David Banther said.
Resident Jane Harrington told commissioners the ordinance leaves out the streets where most people walk.
“The regular sidewalks are dangerous, and now with school back in, it is even worse,” she said. “So it is great you’re doing First Friday, Hippie Fest, but how long before the average person can walk on the sidewalks? I just think there has to be some concern for somebody who might want to walk on sidewalks.”