Boone County is the latest jurisdiction attempting to regulate electric bikes, scooters, and other personalized motorized devices. Meanwhile, Florence, Union and Walton are waiting to see what comes out of the county before implementing their own laws.
Defining the vehicles is the first problem, according to William G. Knoebel, assistant county attorney.
“I've talked with law enforcement about [how] it's impossible for them to identify all of these different scooters to determine whether they can go 20 miles per hour or 22 miles per hour,” he said.
Deputy County Administrator Matt Dowling says the entire county should settle on one set of rules.
“I think the biggest fundamental item in this is jurisdictional boundaries,” Dowling said. “It would be very challenging from both a law enforcement standpoint, but anyone involved to really manage this program, if the three cities and the county have differing rules and regulations.”
At a caucus meeting Sept. 24, officials presented laws other counties have considered, as well as ridership data, a list of the electric devices, and other information to help the fiscal court write an ordinance. In Boone County, commissioners are weighing everything from determining speed limits to identifying specific roads the electric devices can be used on.
A public input survey is open until Sept. 30, but resident Kimberly Duffy said she doesn't think it may be the best indicator of what the community wants.
“A lot of this survey is largely filled out by people that have never used one, never will, [and] don't see any benefit,” Duffy told commissioners at the meeting. “But that's because they don't use them and they don't even interact with the people that do.”
Another resident, Ralph Mitchell, said no laws will be effective if there isn’t an effort to educate children on riding the devices safely. He's a former chair of the Kentucky Bicycle Bikeway Commission and said there are grants the county can apply for to fund potential educational courses, like the Paula Nye Memorial Grant.
“This grant is used to fund bicycle safety projects [and] bicycle/pedestrian safety programs all over the Commonwealth,” Mitchell said. “To date, it's given out over a million dollars.”
Fiscal court members’ concerns generally revolved around the average age of users. Commissioner Cathy Flaig said setting a speed limit is key, “unless they're on their own private property.
"If they're on public property, there ought to be a speed limit,” Flaig said.
Knoebel thinks the county could learn from what Fort Thomas went through. The city recently approved a new bike ordinance that redefined electric devices and created additional safety laws; a nearly year-long process.
“I think they made five or six attempts to get this ordinance right, and they just keep sending it back to the riders,” Knoebel said. "It's not an easy topic."
Officials are also considering new guidelines for utility terrain vehicles like ATVs and side-by-sides. Those could include special speed limits and road restrictions as well. Dowling said other counties have typically taken a “watered down” approach to UTV regulations, but the county has full discretion on how it approaches its own regulations.
“If there's a specific speed limit they want to keep the vehicles under, that's an option,” he said. “If they wanted to limit it to certain roadways” that would be an option, too.
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