Tuesday evening, July 11th, the City Council will be hearing a proposal to update the City Municipal Code to catch up with the State Laws. Clarification on electric bicycles vs motorized bicycles, dropping the no longer required bicycle licensing make sense.
In an attempt to respond with community pressure to deal with scofflaw kids on over powered out-of-class electric motor bikes that are already not street legal, the proposal sets a speed limit of 28 mph for all e-cyclists on any road.
Initially we misread that this 28 mph limit would to apply to ALL cyclists - but is just for our fellow cyclist on electric bicycles that can pedal or coast faster than their 28mph assist who are going to be impacted.
(…of course those same scofflaw kids will still go over 28 - and the police need to crack down on the illegal mini-bikes and unregistered motorized bicycles driven by unlicensed kids even if going 10 mph)
Are discriminatory speed limits coming to Irvine streets?
Many of us rarely go over 28, and most do not have an electric bicycle (yet) but it is our right to travel, and if the posted speed limit is higher for motorists, that is denying cyclists the rights of other road users codified in our CVC.
Sometimes on a downhill we go over 28 to have a safer time sharing the road with traffic and staying with our friends.
Sometimes, if we want to pass Dick Brock after he leads us out at 28, we just HAVE to accelerate…
The proposed changes also puts a 20 mph limit on all bike paths, shared use paths and trails for ALL CYCLIST, Acoustic and electric.
20 mph is too fast in some conditions and no limit is required in others…
Class 2 ‘Throttle’ electric bicycles will be entitled to run full speed at their legal 20 mph limit.
Better to not have a limit posted and have all maintain a safe speed for all other users.
The police who wrote this idea into the draft clearly do not ride bicycles like we do,
Time is short - Bill just heard about this on the 7th and has put out some detailed response, but if you live or work in Irvine, you might want to reach out to the Mayor and Council members and give them your input on agenda item 6.4 before or at the meeting Tuesday evening. enough input might get it ‘tabeled’ to a later meeting to revisit the issues of concern and come up with a better draft. This is why many cities have a bike/walk committee to review stuff before implemented. Irvine disbanded theirs as it kept asking hard questions of developer’s plans…
Here is the agenda item 6.4
If you want to get “lost in the weeds”; Ignore some of the rant about 28mph limits for all
Here is Bill Sellin’s prompt comments and concerns shared with the Mayor, Council and Police Ignore some of the rant about 28mph limits for all.
