OCEAN CITY, Md.- The Ocean City Council has voted to allow class 1 electric bikes on the town's boardwalk. E-bikes were previously banned on the boardwalk.
Class one e-bikes can only go up to 20 miles per hour and must follow the same rules as standard pedal bikes. People on the boardwalk had mixed reactions Monday. Steve McCoy says he's wary about the change.
"The e-bikes can move at a pretty good clip. No only are they potentially faster, but also they are heavier. So if you have any kind of accident it could be worse," said McCoy. "You know we have a lot of bikes on the boardwalk in the summer and it can get really crowded and the e-bikes and move fast."
Others like Jessica Jersey like the idea.
"I love the idea of having something new and different around," said Jersey. "I think that people who would go for an electric bike there is obviously a cost with that so they might want to be a bit more careful they'd probably be a bit more cautious. I think that bikers in this town are a lot of times safer than the drivers."
McCoy also says the different classes of e-bikes could be confusing for people.
"My concern about talking about classes of e-bikes is that I suspect that a lot owners don't know what class their e-bike is. So trying to say certain classes of e bikes are allowed? I don't think so. I think people are goanna take that as e-bikes are allowed and they're going to bring their e-bike to the boardwalk," said McCoy. "I think when you try to complicate things a little bit in that way, a lot of times people don't understand it and they're going to bring their e-bikes."
The new rule is effective immediately.