Mount Pleasant residents are raising alarms over unsafe e-bike riding on sidewalks and roads, despite recent ordinance updates aimed at clarifying rules and boosting enforcement.
Safety Concerns
Riders often speed above limits, weaving around strollers, pets, and elderly pedestrians, leading to close calls. Resident Maureen Fisher describes it as a risky mix of “competition” among vulnerable sidewalk users, primed for accidents.
Ordinance Rules
E-bikes are capped at 750 watts motor output and 20 mph top speed, treated like bicycles. On sidewalks, riders must yield to pedestrians and stay under 12 mph. Exceeding these shifts classification to mopeds under South Carolina law, requiring licenses, registration, and no sidewalk use.
Enforcement and Education
Mount Pleasant Police, via Sgt. Robert Blaschke, note the updates provide clear authority to address violations, distinguishing e-bikes from faster mopeds that parents may mistake for bikes. Residents call for stronger enforcement and school-based education; police urge community reports to the non-emergency line.
