Greensburg mayor says it's time to regulate e-bikes

Greensburg Mayor Robert Bell says it's time the city regulates electric bike usage on streets, sidewalks and parks.

Over the past several years, e-bikes have become an increasingly popular mode of transportation and recreation nationwide, and Greensburg is no exception. But Greensburg, like many other places, currently has no ordinance governing their usage, and riders are increasingly speeding through parks, on sidewalks, and even going through traffic, not obeying the rules of the road.

Bell says that has to stop.

"As the mayor, I am responsible for public safety. And it is a public safety issue; it really is," Bell said. "And I am not looking for a total ban. A lot of people use these to get back and forth to work and run errands and things like that. ... I just want them to follow the rules of the road."

Even off the road at Greensburg's Lynch Field Park, rules are not being followed. The park does have an e-bike ban, but few are adhering to it.

People walking and running on the paths in the park have made several complaints with the city about e-bikes being in this public space, and signs banning e-bikes in the park were taken down by vandals almost as soon as they went up.

Tom Bell is both head of public works and the fire chief of Greensburg.

"Something has to be done," Tom Bell said. "We have had three accidents that I can recall, but there has been more during the course of this year. If we went back into our reports, we could find out how many accidents there were involving e-bikes. But somebody is going to get killed."

Now, it may take months to get a new ordinance on the books, but Robert Bell and Tom Bell said they want to see something done sooner rather than later to help protect citizens on and off these e-bikes.