OCEAN CITY — A proposal to mandate lights on bicycles on all resort roadways got sent back to the drawing board this week after town officials could not agree on some ordinance language and enforcement issues.
For the last few months, the Coastal Resources Legislative Committee, or Green Team, has been debating an initiative to require the use of lights on the front and rear ends of bicycles. The ambitious program would have the town purchase the lights through grant programs and install them at no cost on the countless bicycles that utilize the resort’s roadways throughout the summer season. In addition, the proposal includes appealing to Wal-Mart, from which many of the bicycles on Ocean City’s streets in the summer are purchased by seasonal workers and J-1 students, to install additional lights on the bikes they sell.
While no one disagrees with the concept, there were still some reservations about the proposed project when it was presented to the full Mayor and Council this week. The council wanted certain clarifications made in the proposed ordinance language. In addition, some on the council voiced concern about the increased enforcement needed by the Ocean City Police Department (OCPD) if bike lights were mandated.
The proposed ordinance borrows liberally from the existing state law on the books regarding lights on bicycles. The current town code notes “highway” as the only road on which bikes are required to have illumination after dusk. Ocean City’s proposed ordinance would add streets, alleys, roadways and bike paths. In addition, another section of the town’s ordinance regarding bike lights states “a bicycle or bicyclist may be equipped with a lamp that emits a red light or flashing amber light visible from a distance of 500 to the rear in addition the red reflector required.”
City Engineer Terry McGean, who presented the proposal on behalf of City Environmental Engineer Gail Blazer, said the code change requiring rear bicycle lights could be accomplished by changing the word “may” in the aforementioned subsection of the code to “shall.”
Councilman and Green Team chair Tony DeLuca explained two years ago a successful pilot program had OCPD officers stopping bicycles without a front light and installing lights that were donated at no cost to the city to the offending bicycles before sending them on their way. DeLuca said the intent of the proposed ordinance was to expand that pilot program to require lights on the rear of the bikes.
“We want to supply the lights at no cost to the taxpayers,” he said. “We’re going to get grants and we’re going to appeal to Wal-Mart to supply the bikes they sell to seasonal workers with rear lights. They have been responsive in some initial talks. The bottom line is we want to get rear lights on the bikes. It’s a public safety issue.”
While no one could argue with the concept, there were some details to be ironed out before the council gave its blessing to moving forward with the project. City Solicitor Guy Ayres pointed out there is a massive changeover in visitors to the resort each week during the summer and getting the word out to them could be challenging.
“There are an awful lot of people who visit this town throughout the summer and they sometimes bring two, three or four bicycles with them,” he said. “How is this going to work for them?”
Councilman Wayne Hartman agreed there could be challenges with implementing the ordinance and ultimately enforcing it.
“Going to Wal-Mart might only solve about 10 percent of the problem,” he said. “For us to ask our police department to install lights and enforce those that don’t have them will take them away from other things they need to be doing. I think there needs to be another way to tackle this. I agree it’s a safety issue, but I just don’t know how this is enforceable.”
Councilman Dennis Dare agreed with the concept but also agreed with Hartman it could have enforcement challenges.
“I’m not sure we want to pass an ordinance and then ask our police not to enforce it,” he said. “I’m not sure this is the way to go with this.”
Council President Lloyd Martin said gaining compliance and enforcement would take a lot of public education, particularly with the weekly turnover in the summer.
“We’re going to need a lot of public education,” he said. “I believe the intent is good, but it’s going to be just like the Boardwalk and smoking. It took some time to educate people on this.”
Council Secretary Mary Knight pointed out there are several opportunities to get seasonal workers bicycles outfitted with lights, such as church functions they attend, City Hall when they arrive and get their Social Security cards, meetings with their sponsors and other events. The council voted to send the proposed ordinance back to the committee for further discussion and revision.
